


Kai's Story - Notorious

by SunDragon



Series: Kai's Story [2]
Category: Original Work, RWBY
Genre: Angst, Copious profanity, Cyberpunk, Dystopia, F/F, Fish out of genre water, Found Family, Gradual moral corruption, comfy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:00:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 154,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27950402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunDragon/pseuds/SunDragon
Summary: Fearing for Ruby's safety, Kai takes Team RWBY and Ilia to her "home" planet of Makarzia. There they'll have to work doing, as Kai calls it, "larcenous shit" in order to earn an insane amount of money to be able to buy their way back to the Guildhall and return to Remnant.But will Remnant recognize them by the time they do?
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose & Ilia Amitola, Weiss Schnee/Original Character(s)
Series: Kai's Story [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2038249
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	1. Arrival

February 25, 2993, 02:07 (Local Makarzia time)

There was a little stumble as they went from standing on a very even, very smooth polished cement jail cell floor to standing on a slightly uneven stretch of blacktop, from brightly-lit lights to a dark night illuminated by toned-down neon from closed shops and the undercarriages of nearby streetspeeders, most of the group remaining upright due to being huddled tightly together.

Until Ruby Rose's silver eyes widened, and she quickly yanked herself back from everyone else, twisting 180 degrees before being violently ill onto the street.

Yang Xiao Long winced, rubbing her sister's back, then winced even harder as Blake Belladonna wound up staggering and half-slamming against the hood of a car, barely managing to turn her head before being similarly sick.

"Oh god," Weiss Schnee groaned, pressing both hands over her mouth and sinking to her knees on the damp road, shuddering and looking like she was just barely not joining the other two.

Kai sighed a little as she watched them, then gave a silent 'hunh' as Ilia rushed over to try and comfort Blake. 'Huh, the ones with the hub implants aren't getting hit by the dimensional dysmorphia nearly as bad.' She squatted down in front of Weiss and clasped her shoulder, holding up a finger. "Baby? Hey, Snowbird, focus for me, how many?"

"... Two," Weiss said in a thick, slightly moist, and muffled voice through her hands.

"Okay you need to stay here for a minute. Rainbow go watch one end of the street. Yang, ask Ruby how many fingers."

"... She got it right," the blonde said a moment later after Ruby had whispered her reply, the silver-eyed girl still bent over and shuddering a little.

"Okay she's fine, go watch the other end, Niobe told me this street isn't used much but you never know when someone's gonna have a race or some shit. Blaaaake, what's the sign in front of you say?"

"... Daisuri... Printing..."

"Okay you're fine. Weiss. Weiss honey." Kai snapped her fingers a few times, holding a finger up again. "How many now?"

Weiss swallowed heavily, lowering her hands. "One."

"Okay Snowbird on your feet then," Kai murmured, snagging her girlfriend's arm and somewhat gently hauling her up.

"Makarzia odorous Makarzia," Ilia grumbled, giving a shallow puddle of water a light kick.

"Ruby. Rubes," Kai said, putting a hand on the younger woman's shoulder and slowly easing her upright. "Head or stomach?"

"Stomach," she whimpered a little.

"Alright that's probably mostly the puking. Get out of the street, okay?" Kai urged her along a bit, then went over to Blake. "Blake, you alright?"

"I'm..." Blake blinked a few times as she straightened up. "I'm fine, actually. It was  _ awful _ right after but now I'm just... fine."

"That happens sometimes, it's probably your better senses anchoring you. I bet the dimensional dysmorphia was so bad because we hopped so many of us on the same beacon."

"That's really not what that word means," Blake murmured as she moved over to join Ruby, petting her team leader's hair a bit.

"So did the dimension not feel mis-sized and misshapen to you?" Ilia spoke up in a droll tone.

Blake opened her mouth... closed it. "... Touché."

"Now what?" Yang asked, glancing around and rolling her shoulders.

"Niobe has someone stationed at a club that's about a block that way called the 'Down Boy'," Kai replied, pointing. "If we're in luck they'll know where she is, or she might be there herself."

Soon they were moving along more populated sidewalks, heavy with night creatures in stylish coats, a few in scanner masks of various designs, many with glowing parts of their outfits. And virtually all of them displaying tails, ears, or both, from the guy running the three card monte game near an alleyway to the pack of girls in coats, little skirts, and tubetops clustered around a corner.

'Huh, things must've calmed down a little.'

"Where  _ are _ we?" Blake asked, hugging herself partly against the cold and partly to cover the scar on her stomach, the closest one to fitting in with both style and biological accoutrements even without her longcoat. "There's so...  _ many _ ." She stopped a little to stare at a woman in a white operator coat walking by, her ears fuzzy and her tail reptilian, talking to a crimson-skinned man with long curved horns and black-scleraed eyes with seemingly literally flaming irises.

"Tailtown," Kai answered with a grin, flitting a little two-fingered wave to someone she recognized passingly.

Blake's ears laid down a little bit. "The humans call it that?"

Ilia snorted softly. "The  _ residents _ call it that." At Blake's shocked look, the younger Faunus just grinned. "Things are different here. You'll see."

"Genemods, 'demi-humans', and other animalistic people don't live here because they have to, Blake, it's just where the community's grown. There's some prejudice in Makarzia at large, but there's just so  _ many _ nonhumans that it doesn't amount to much," Kai added. "You're more likely to get a slightly skeevy look than you are to be denied an apartment or some shit."

Kai almost sagged in relief at the sight of the Down Boy, though Team RWBY's expressions said something more like 'intimidated'. The ten story building had its lower three stories painted with a massive mural lit by spotlights, a sweet, almost angelic male youth with dog ears and a tail, head canted and directing bedroom eyes and a seductive smile out at the street, his hands up to lace behind the neck of the vague, generalized, looming form of a solid black male silhouette behind him.

The music was already starting to become slightly audible as they approached the front doors, Kai grinning broadly as she recognized the bouncer. "Buzz!"

"Kai!" the feather-scalped, sharp-toothed man answered as enthusiastically, clasping her thrust-out hand and hauling her in to bump shoulders. "What the hell are you and the lzrd doing back, huh?"

"Special circumstances. Niobe around?"

"She's in, actually, most nights now. Go on in," he added, thumbing to the door.

Kai nodded, ambling forward and pushing a set of double doors open ahead of her, music and the steady pulse of colored strobes spilling out across the sidewalk.

_ Leftfield - Inspection (Check One) _

This was obviously not the 'dancing' sort of club... at least for the patrons. There was however a lot of dancing going on, on both the round stages, the tables, and in the seats around the tables, the vast majority of it being done by slender, fairly feminine men with various animal-like features, many wearing lingerie or bikinis... if that. 

Kai could tell that Team RWBY was both a bit awed and overwhelmed, and scandalized to various degrees, Blake's ears laying down either at the volume of the music or the apparent exploitation of nonhumans, Weiss looking somewhere between overstimulated and outraged, Yang just staring about with wide eyes, and Ruby with a slightly glazed look that said she was performing a semi-constant memory dump to not particularly retain what she was seeing. 

Kai walked past the tables and chairs mostly full of masked or hooded men like it was no big deal, Ilia doing her best to match her sister's stride and expression, though Kai was fairly sure even in the club's lighting that she'd gone pink-specked.

Niobe was sprawled on a large thronelike booth-couch built into one end of the bar, arms stretched out to the sides draped on the back of it, one leg folded over the other and surveying the club like a queen reigning over her court. Well, that and smirking as she watched the dancers. But at the redhead's approach, she blinked, then rose and moved to meet her. 

"Kai, what the hell are you doing back?" she demanded, sounding somewhere between huffy and overjoyed, her voice raised to be heard over the music without shouting in a way that spoke of long practice. "You and Ilia are supposed to still be getting me fresh meat! ... Hm, sounds bad when I say it like that, considering the surroundings," she chuckled with a glance around the club. Then she frowned. "Where's your coat, where's all your shit?"

"Kind of had a situation come up, Niobe," Kai answered in the same manner, face grim. "These are some friends of ours from Remnant, someone had us thrown in lockup trying to get at my poss Ruby there. Beaconing back here was the best way to get out."

"Well shit. Let's sit down and work this shit then," Niobe said with a frown.

"Guys!" Kai called a bit louder, yanking Team RWBY's attention back her from where it had wandered to staring uncomprehendingly at the club around them. "Pop a squat over here!" she gestured to one of the raised tables near the bar. "Ilia and me are gonna figure out our next move!"

"Eh?" Yang said distantly, purple eyes having locked on a boy who was dancing on the bartop, short, soft black hair matching his feline ears and tail, his white flat-cupped bra, garter belt, stockings, and panties all pulsing with the different colors the strobelights were flashing through. She jumped a bit as Blake smacked her arm, the blonde giving her partner a sheepish look.

The stunned-looking Remantites rather numbly heading to the table. Kai tapped a passing waiter, a slender male with fox ears dressed in a French maid themed bikini top, g-string, and 'apron' that was really just a flap in front of his crotch. "Hey, the short-haired one and the cat, they need a mouth cleanser, yeah? Nonalc." Then she stepped over, settling down on the opposite side of Niobe from Ilia in the throne-booth.

"I won't lie, it's good you're back kid, shitty circumstances aside," Niobe said as an opener.

"Speaking of circumstances, did the Street Demons back down? Tailtown looks like it's back to normal," Kai said, not wanting to leap right into what she needed. And, frankly, having been worried about the whole issue.

"We've got a nonaggression pact going right now. Yeah, I know, I was surprised too," Niobe said with a shrug as Kai raised her eyebrows. "Apparently they recruited someone from Tailtown to be one of the glowy stand-out fucks and all of a sudden that's possible."

"So they get a Tailtown glowy, and suddenly the Street Demons fucking negotiate? Hell. So you're at peace with 'em now?"

"No, the pact  _ only _ applies to Tailtown, the physical location," Niobe clarified, pointing at the floor and twirling her finger a bit. "Demons don't enter Tailtown at all, that's the deal. Outside of it they can kill Slicers as they like and vice versa. It's been a pretty sweet fuckin' deal if I'm honest, we're one of the only safe places to do business. Revenue's way way way up."

Kai smirked. "I assume you're not just sitting back enjoying the high life?"

"I mean I  _ am _ enjoyin' it," Niobe said with a smirk, pausing briefly to turn her head and peck Ilia's forehead. "But nah. I'm not gonna let myself get locked in here 'til I go cage crazy being confined to a couple megablocks. The NAP only applies to Tailtown and that goes for us too, we're allowed to fight them however the fuck we want outside. Right now since we're the only ones with a semi-safe fallback position we're mostly supporting other gangs. Big damn heroes for hire, that's us," she added with a chuckle. 

"It's shifted things a bit, the violence is still rough and it's still ongoing, but at least it's still 'gang war' level crap and not 'actual war'. So what's the deal with your buddies here?" she continued, leaning back a bit and looking over at the table with Team RWBY, who all seemed to still be in a state of mild shock.

"It's kind of a shit show on Remnant right now, Niobe," Kai answered truthfully. "Not like here but sort of behind the scenes. Real storybook 'threats of ancient evil' crap and global conspiracies shit. We're in it up to our scalps but we're in it and committed. Problem is my friend Ruby there," she continued, gesturing to the youngest of RWBY. "Is right at the top of the big bad's shit list. Got her thrown in a cell on trumped-up charges along with the rest of us to pin her down, we had to portal here to get out. All our shit got left behind too. Which means if we wanna get back and spring our other friends, I gotta get the creds for a new Guild beacon and five guest passes."

Niobe pursed her lips together. "Shit. Kid, you know I'd give you the money if that was all it was... it's a lot but I'm fuckin' Queen of Tailtown now, I could manage. There's a problem though."

She leaned in, putting her head practically next to Kai's to lower her voice. "My contact within the Guild government says that your certification is on thin as hell ice. They're apparently not happy you just did a passthrough without even glancing at recert, it's apparently marked where it could get nulled entirely."

"Shit," Kai murmured, feeling her heart drop.

* * *

"I don't think I'd ever really realized how much my Guild certification meant to me until Niobe made the danger of losing it a clear and present one.

"Let's face it, most of the friends I had... and I was able to see and acknowledge they'd been friends now... were Guild members. If I got my cert nulled, I'd never get to see them again.

"More than that it was just... part of my identity. I'd been a Guildcert almost literally as long as I could remember. Sure it was tied to my time in slavery, but it was like the makeup Weiss had put on me a day and a dimension ago. Related but separate."

* * *

"So what's the path forward here, Niobe?" Kai asked after a moment.

"I'm almost absolutely fucking certain there's a Guild observer hanging around somewhere. So I'm thinking, you earn the money for a new beacon and the guest passes yourself, they just let you do a recert test when you get back, no problem. Our other option..."

Niobe trailed off, glanced at the table with the stunned, obviously fish-out-of-water Remnantites, then looked back at Kai. "I buy guest passes, take them home, Ilia if she wants, then I come back. Can get it done today."

"... Alright, I'll let 'em know," Kai said.

"Well  _ I'm _ not leaving Kai," Ilia said immediately, frowning.

Niobe grinned, rubbing Ilia's head a bit. "Didn't figure, lzrd. Look, kid, either way, here." Niobe fished a transparent keycard with a glowing flame emblem on it. "There's a place on the next block over, 'Hell Blazer', the owner owes me up to his third pair of eyeballs. Take your friends outside, explain the deal. If they come back in, I'll get 'em home, Grey commed me the coordinates last time he was on the Hall. Then you go over to Hell Blazer and get yourself deadly."

Then she smirked. "But if they stay, get 'em stylish and get 'em deadly, then get on the psycomm to Cammy and get to work. You've got a lot of creds to earn and you may as well start tonight."

Kai grinned wryly in a way that said she thought she'd be heading to Hell Blazer alone, since she had every intention of talking Ilia into going back with RWBY. All the same she nodded and rose, Ilia falling into step as Kai moved to bang on the tabletop to get the quartet's attention, pointing at the door.

"Alright, so here's the deal," Kai said once they were standing out on the mostly deserted sidewalk... the Down Boy's customer base didn't like to be visible in public too long. "Niobe can take all five of you-"

"Four of you," Ilia interrupted.

Kai pursed her lips, then continued. "Home probably within the hour."

"Wait, what about you?" Weiss asked with a blink.

Before the redhead could say anything, Ilia spoke up. "Kai's in trouble because she hasn't recertified her license since she got freed. If she doesn't earn the money for the beacon and our guest passes, she won't be able to go back to Remnant."

"What?!" Yang yelped.

"Well we are  _ not _ doing that," Weiss snapped immediately, scowling.

"Weiss, honey, Snowbird, listen-"

" _ Don't _ you 'Snowbird' me, Kai Sterling!" Weiss snapped, jabbing a finger up at Kai's face. "We are _not_ leaving you here! Now you told us that we can help you earn the money, is that still true?"

"I... yeah, as long as I'm the one visibly kind of... leading the crew, I should get credit for it," Kai said slowly.

Some of the others glanced at Ruby, but without hesitation the silver-eyed woman nodded. "Okay then, Kai, you're the leader. Lead us to where we're going next."

"... Guys, are you  _ sure _ ?" Kai said with a frown. "Makarzia's not gonna get any prettier after the Down Boy, really. In fact it gets way, way,  _ way _ uglier. Niobe can have you home-"

"We aren't leaving without you and Ilia," Blake said firmly. "So just tell us what our next step is."

* * *

"There definitely isn't any concept of 'karma' in worshiping the Crystal Dragon, unless you count him forgiving you your trespasses and still giving you a home in his scales.

"Still. There are times I can't help but wonder if I'd accrued some for all the shit I'd been through. I wound up having the absolute best friends anyone could ask for. Way better than I deserved."

* * *

"Alright, if that's really how you feel," Kai said with a sigh, then held up the keycard. "Niobe's got a guy who owes her bigtime. We're heading over to a closed shop called the Hell Blazer, from the sound of it, it's got everything we need." She turned and set off. "Armorweave or not, you guys are gonna hafta ditch the Remnant clothes."

"How come?" Ruby asked with a curious frown as she scurried to check up. "Everyone was dressed pretty weird when we walked over here!"

"Yeah but Rubes, they're dressed the  _ right _ kind of weird," Kai answered, flicking a finger towards the silver-eyed woman. "We're gonna be working jobs ranging across the whole megasector, which means we need to blend with the others of our ilk when we do. Part of being a crew is image... and we need to be a Makarzian crew."

"Let's look at it this way," Ilia spoke up after a moment as the group moved onto a quieter, less populated street of closed shops again. "Kai already said that you'd have to do larcenous shit if you came here. So what happens on Makarzia, stays on Makarzia. We're not Huntresses here, we're Kai's crew, so we may as well draw a distinction between what we wear as those two things, right?"

"That... kind of makes sense," Blake allowed. "... I certainly wouldn't mind a new jacket," she added, ears folding. "It's cold here."

"Well you'll have a  _ wide _ variety to pick from, no worries, Blackbird," Kai chuckled as she swiped the keycard at the barely visible panel beside the shop's door, the antitheft shutter over the door rolling up and the side of the handle blinking green before she hauled it open.

The lights in the store came on automatically. The size of a small department store, a good two-thirds of it looked to be racks of various clothing in all the styles they'd seen so far and more, everything a night creature could possibly need to look like a night creature. The other third was weapons, including numerous racks of blades, blunt objects, cases of knives, and racks of rifles and pistols.

"Whoa," Yang said with a blink. "Even Huntress stores aren't like  _ this _ ."

"Alright guys, we've basically got the run of the place," Kai said. "First we get stylish. Clothes there, clothing customizer machine there, hairstyler right there, it also does piercings and makeup."

"Where are the changing rooms?" Blake asked, leaning up on tiptoe and looking over the racks.

Kai snorted, peeling off her top, breasts falling free with a little jiggle. "You're standing in it."

Team RWBY's eyes went wide and Ilia's specks went pink, a moment before Weiss flung herself forward and put her hands protectively over the redhead's bare breasts. "No looking! Mine!" the white-haired woman snapped at the others... before her entire face slowly turned red as she realized both what she'd said and what she was doing.

"... Don't think that I don't appreciate this on multiple levels, Snowbird," Kai said with a smirk. "But we need to get to work. There's no real time for modesty right now. The sooner we start earning the sooner we get off this cityhole cementball and back home."

"... F-fine!" Weiss snapped, whirling and stalking off into the aisles quickly.

"Snowbird!" Kai called, snagging a messenger bag from a rack of them near the door and tossing it into the aisle ahead of her girlfriend. "For your old stuff!"

Grumbling noises were her reply.

The others quickly enough wandered out into the store, seeking their own style based on what they'd seen so far. Kai got out of her boots, carefully setting them aside, then peeled out of her pants as well, padding naked through the store, not feeling overly bothered about doing so. She had experience with stuff like this.

She found a tight black top much like her last one, albeit newer and more form-adhering. Kai decided she liked it, but not that it covered her midriff entirely, she'd gotten used to her bellybutton breathing. Nothing that snagging a knife from one of the displays couldn't fix. When she pulled the top on, it was now ragged and uneven from about an inch and a half below her breasts down, heading off at an angle, but she liked the look. She pulled on a snug short tank in a glow-absorb fabric so that it would look good in clubs over it, just for contrast.

She found a pair of fairly standard 'combat' pants, black and with numerous pockets... man she was gonna miss dimensional pockets until she got back to the Guildhall. She considered going looking for some panties, then shrugged it off. Maybe later. 

Socking up and putting her boots back on (she might have actually gone apeshit and tried to kill someone if the soldiers had attempted to confiscate those), Kai ran her fingers through her hair, then glanced over at the hairtrimmer thoughtfully.

Then thought of Pyrrha's ponytail clasp in that secure locker.

'I'll be back for that shit, you smirking fascist fucks,' she thought with a snarl, stalking to the counter and grabbing a simple multicolor glowing hairband from a bin of them, tying her hair low and to the side in a ponytail that would drape over her shoulder, letting it usually be covered by her jacket.

Speaking of... needed a jacket. She looked through the available ones, and finally settled on a knee-length red one with internal glow. She carried it over to the customization machine, made a bit of a face as she saw that adding kitty ears to the hood wasn't an option. 'Man, fuck you.' Instead she set the internal glow color to silver, then had her crowned lion emblem emblazoned in matching silver glow on the back after making sure she could flip a switch to turn both off if she needed.

As she was pulling on the jacket and adjusting the hidden sizing mechanisms, Yang emerged from the aisles. She'd gone with a similar top to the one Kai had picked, albeit sleeveless and without mutilating the middle. She'd found a fingerless black glove for her right hand that came up to a few inches below the shoulder, just almost matching the height of where her right arm turned to gold chrome. Down low were black roadracer-style pants and boots with the clasps displaying little pixelated hearts, set to yellow of course.

"It stays pretty cold around here, y'know," Kai commented as she noticed that the long, yellow high-collared yellow jacket with a zip-up midriff that Yang was placing on the printer was also sleeveless.

"Worse than out there right now?" Yang asked. At Kai shaking her head, she smirked. "Then it's fine," she added, starting to recreate her own emblem to emblazon it on the back of the coat in black. "I don't even really feel that level of cold."

'Lucky Blake, fucking a space heater,' Kai thought with a smirk. Grinning, she walked over to the counter, opening a sealed turntable of sunglasses and picking out an angular, dark iridescent gold pair and tossing them over. "Here."

"Hm, dunno if even I'm cool enough to pull off 'sunglasses at night'," Yang chuckled, sliding them on anyway... then blinked as the screens inside quickly adjusted to give a perfectly clear view, and started listing things like the make and model of the various weapons she looked at as she raised her head. "Okay, nevermind, these are the best."

Blake was the next to emerge, dressed quite similarly to Yang, except that her top was long-sleeved, and her boots came up to an inch below the knees and zipped up the sides. Wallgrippers, Kai thought from the look of them, designed to give extra traction if you were the sort of crazy agile motherfucker who decided to try running along a wall.

She was holding a white flap-across-the-front roadracer jacket with a wide collar. Once she'd placed her emblem on it, settling for a smaller version on the edge of the front flap rather than the back-sized one, she pulled it on and zipped it up, tugging on the white fingerless gloves that came with it. After eyeing the hairstyler much as Kai had, she actually elected to make use of it.

Yang made a small noise of half-dismay as the machine clipped off most of Blake's hair, giving her an angular pageboy-type cut that came even with her chin in front and rose slightly along the back. When Blake rose, she blinked, noticing that there was now a light blinking on one of the gloves. Pressing it curiously, she yelped as segments slid out of the collar of the coat, not unlike a transforming weapon as they formed into a black-visored white motorcycle helmet, complete with vented kitty ears to match hers.

"... That would have been a lot cooler if I hadn't almost peed myself," Blake said solemnly, her voice coming out slightly electronically modulated.

Ruby and Ilia came out almost together, and attired fairly similarly. Ilia was wearing all white, bodysuit boots, and a poncho-styled drape open in front that didn't quite cover her arms. Kai recognized it as camocloth... capable of blending with the environment, but with the problem that it had issues with seams and didn't do a thing for anywhere the cloth didn't cover. Which wasn't a problem, though, if the wearer could also blend themselves to match the environment.

Ruby was wearing a black bodysuit with built-in full gloves and a red half-poncho, albeit hers was slightly 'tatter' style and mostly draped around the shoulders, hanging down a bit further in back, clearly the best emulation of her cape she could find. She's also accessorized more heavily, pulling on a pair of completely open-fingered red gloves, a dark red pleated skirt, and a pair of boots with more straps than everyone else's outfits put together. She'd strapped carrier pouches around her thighs and upper arms, apparently in lieu of pockets.

Eyeing the hairstyler and its other options, she grinned and flopped into it after programming it, the machine quickly trimming her hair shorter and giving it a slightly 'spiked' look... as well as piercing her ear repeatedly, adding several silver 'caps', a spike, and a silver rose at the bottom of the lobe that wasn't quite her emblem but decently close.

"Oh hell, Dad would kill me if he saw you," Yang muttered with a shake of the head.

_ I'm totally getting a tattoo while I'm here too, _ Ruby sent directly to Kai in a smug tone, making the redhead fight to not burst out laughing.

Then she got rather distracted, her jaw dropping as Weiss sauntered out of the aisles.

The white-haired woman had selected a tight blue top with long sleeves that left her entire midriff bare and did wonderful things for showing off her pert breasts, iridescent white hotpants that did just as much for her hips, a pair of mid-thigh white boots with heels that zipped from heel-to-top for easy removal, and a long white street-coat trimmed around the collar and down the front sides with white faux fur, the inside lining heated to judge by the very faint glow it gave off.

"This blends, right?" she asked, glancing down and swishing the coat back-and-forth. "I saw some pretty women wearing stuff like this."

_ My first order as your leader is for none of you to tell her,  _ **_ever_ ** _ , _ Kai sent to everyone but Weiss, devouring her girlfriend with heated red eyes.

Weiss blinked, and for a second Kai worried that she'd actually included Weiss in the recipient list, but apparently it had been the look on her girlfriend's face, considering the blush on her cheeks. "Um, Kai?"

"You look absolutely amazing, Snowbird," Kai assured her, extremely sincerely. "Perfect."

Beaming, Weiss glanced around at the others, starting a little at Blake's short hair, Rolling her eyes at Ruby's... then eyeing the hairstyler. Shrugging, she made her way over and spent a few moments programming it before sitting down. The machine undid her side-ponytail and instead did most of her hair in a long, tight braid from low down on the back of her head, other bits of it doing a pair of tight, small braids running over each ear. It also applied a bit of faintly glowing white eyeshadow, some faintly metallic blue lip gloss, and a snowflake emblem on her cheek that, Kai couldn't help but notice, was a nice bright metallic silver.

'Nnnnnh Dragon give me the patience because oh my god I love her so much and she is so fuckin' hot,' Kai thought, almost weeping internally with desire.

But Weiss had said she wanted to wait, and Kai sincerely understood her reasons, so she'd just have to burn hotter than Yang for a while.

"These  _ are _ fun," Weiss declared of the machine as she sat up, grinning. 

"Alright, guys, you're looking Makarzian for sure," Kai said with a grin, leading them back to the front of the store. "You look stylish, now let's get deadly."

Blake moved to a display of what looked like slightly oversized straight-out switchblades, picking up a black one and working the slide, raising an eyebrow as a full-length ninjato blade. Apparently deciding that was her speed, she clipped it to her thigh, then moved over to the pistol display case, waiting for Kai to open it before picking up a slightly hefty pistol, larger above and below the barrel, turning it back and forth.

"Recoilless full auto," Kai supplied as she selected a set of replacements for her quickfires, albeit sadly without the dual-ammo select. "Make sure that one's repliammo, or it'll be useless. Repliammo is usually just one type, you don't get fancy stuff like ceramicoats or burners or tracers. But with the infinite ammo mags, well, you don't always need a bullet with someone else's name on it, a couple of hundred labeled 'Occupant' will do."

Yang fastened a pair of retractable stun-enabled brawler knuckles onto her left arm, no doubt as the closest thing she was going to find to Celica. Eyeing a short single-barrel shotgun, she took out and eyed the solid slug repliammo mag, replaced it, then started loading some of the more exotic shell mags into an ammo pouch to fasten at her thigh. 

Ruby moved down the line of rifles along the wall behind the counter, picking some up and eyeing the scope or hefting the weight in turn. She eventually selected a red-bodied rifle with several pulsing LED strips and two barrels, a longer one below and a shorter up top, that Kai couldn't help but think had mostly been for its very vague resemblance to Crescent Rose. "Hup," Kai called, tossing Ruby a collapsible staff for her melee needs.

Kai headed for the sword racks to pick out a new katana, trying not to feel too bitter about Red Legacy being in lockup. She found Weiss wandering back and forth down the aisles, her lips pursed.

"Sorry, babe, not much call for rapiers on Makarzia," Kai said a little ruefully, finally selecting a long, particularly slender ninjato with no guard and a smooth, shiny white sheath to make it look just a bit like a long cane. "Think this is about the closest you're gonna get."

"I think you're right," Weiss said with a sigh, accepting what Kai was almost 100% sure was a streetwalker's self defense weapon, especially since there was a conveniently perfect set of straps for it inside the coat. Then she blinked as Kai proffered her an oldschool-style switchblade, the handle silver and heavily engraved. "Oh, that's pretty." Then she jumped a little, cheeks coloring as Kai stepped in and lifted the back of her coat. "Kai!"

"Not that your ass doesn't look absolutely amazing in those, Snowbird," the redhead murmured in her girlfriend's ear, which also turned red. "But I'm back here for this."

"Mmf?" Weiss shivered a little at the feel of the static-lock holster of the small, sleek pistol adhering to the bare skin of her back. 

"I know it's not your style, but you're probably gonna need range at some point, and there's no Dust on Makarzia," Kai pointed out as she let the coat drop to cover the small weapon.

"Ah. Yes, I suppose you're right," Weiss murmured, pursing her lips a bit as if struggling to comprehend a world without Dust. Then she blushed again and glanced over. "Does it really look that good?"

"Mm-hmmm."

Kai looked over several swords, before finally deciding 'Hell, I'm not paying for it,' and selecting a katana-form crystalslicer, its cutting edge seemingly made out of smooth, flawless ruby. She wasn't surprised to see that Ilia had also selected a switchninjato, and a powered stun-whip coiled at her other hip. 

"Okay, guys, other gear's over there," Kai directed, pointing to a corner. "Everyone make sure to get a viewscanner of some kind, a medpack, a comm, and whatever else you can figure out what it is and think you'll actually need it, don't go completely crazy. Ilia, that bodysuit come with a pack?"

"Yup."

"You're on pack mule duty, get job tools, also grab me the stuff I just said."

"Hup."

"Also everyone grab yourselves bags and pack your old stuff in 'em if you haven't already." Having no real emotional attachment to the old top and pants she'd discarded, Kai left them laying on the floor and headed back over the counter, swiping open one of the back display cases and starting to pull out a few grey-market stims and downers, as well as several packs of smokes... quirking an eyebrow when a golden hand slipped by her and grabbed a pack as well. "Seriously?"

"Hey, like they say, 'when in Vacuo', or Makarzia I guess," Yang replied with a smirk, holding the pack up, turning to snag a gold plasma lighter off the counter. "Besides, they're strawberry flavored!"

"And yet the fucker doesn't stock lime," Kai muttered, shoving the case back closed. "Just don't blame me if Blake gives you shit. Okay, everyone, huddle up."

She waited until everyone had gathered around to continue. "Okay, first, a few things to go over. First of all I'm gonna do my best to steer us clear of any outright wetwork, but like I said, these jobs will be larcenous shit. And we will definitely run into people who will be trying to kill us."

"Most people here don't have active Auras," Ilia spoke up. "Some of them might heal fast, or be super tough, or armored or cybered, but not all of them, and even then. So if you take a sword to someone or shoot them... you better mean it."

"Similarly, not a single one of these fuckers knows that each of us has our own personal force field," Kai continued. "So if they shoot you or slice you, they're trying to fucking kill you. And I have a distinct feeling that a lot of crap here will go through our Aura like it's not there."

"Wait, what?" Yang said with a blink.

"Makarzia is home to a wide, wide array of interesting and exotic conventional firearms. They don't use blasters much here, but ceramicoats, blazers, impacters, they're all ammo types that are designed to do massive damage. And then there's these things," Kai added, unsheathing the crystalslicer and holding it up to display the ruby edge and the circuitry-like lines cut into the side of the metal blade, revealing more of the same ruby beneath. All of the red glowed as Kai flipped a small switch.

"Ooooo, pretty," Ruby cooed. "What's it do?"

"Crystalslicer. Insanely sharp edge, vibrates faintly but at a high intensity, and..." Kai carefully lowered it to her wrist... and there was a fizzing crackle of scarlet, followed by a small trickle of blood. "Yuuup that's about what I thought."

"Um." Blake blinked as Kai raised the blade, the cut instantly disappearing.

"Damn," Yang muttered.

"So yeah. It's your life or theirs out there guys. Keep it in mind," Kai said as she switched off and resheathed the sword. She gave them a few to absorb that, then said, "Alright, before we head out there, there's one more thing I want you all to remember."

"What's that?" Ruby asked, nose crinkling a bit.

Kai pointed to the door. "Do you think a single one of those assholes out there, a single one on this entire stinking cementball called Makarzia... has ever killed a Grimm?"

Team RWBY blinked at her.

"I said, do you think that anyone other than the people standing in this room right now have ever killed a physical nightmare made of hate and rage?"

Slowly, the side of Yang's mouth curled up in a smirk. "Nah."

"Do you think a single Makarzian has an externalized soul that lets them do some of the most batshit insane physical stunts to ever be imagined?"

Now it was Blake's turn to grin. "I doubt it."

"Do you think any gangbanger in existence can control speed, lock people against surfaces, and speed up goddamn time?"

Weiss's eyes glinted with her smile. "Not a chance in hell."

Grinning wolfishly, Kai leaned in towards Ruby, curling her head a bit before locking gazes with her. "Is there, or has there ever been, a single motherfucker in Makarzian history that could blast pure lifeforce out of their goddamn eyes?"

Ruby's silver eyes gleamed. "Nope," she chirped softly.

"Rainbow, what does it seem to you like we've got here?" Kai asked, looking at Ilia as her sister moved to stand beside her.

"Looks to me like the single most badass job crew to ever set foot on this worthless planet," Ilia replied with a smirk of her own.

"Funny, looks like that to me too." Kai gave her shoulders a roll, cracked her neck. "So. When we step out there, I want you to walk like it. I want you to look like it. I want it showing in your eyes, the way you hold your heads. You are my crew.  _ The _ most badass job crew this piece of shit planet has ever seen. And I want people to know that the moment they look at us."

She turned towards the door, gave one last shift of her shoulders, rested her hand on the pommel of her sword.

"Let's get it done."

_ Adam Jensen - The Hunter _

Kai let her shoulders settle forward, moving in a smooth, rolling stride, shoulders loose, visibly ready to cut loose and unleash violence at any time, at any range, red eyes gazing out from the bright silver glow of her hood.

Ilia strode beside her, no longer the reclusive little comm officer, instead walking with a smooth, almost liquid walk, wrists tucked behind her back, canny blue eyes ranging across everything in their path as if waiting for it to do something offensive to Kai's sensibilities so she could decide how best to take it apart.

Ruby by contrast just almost skipped along, a bop to her hips, silver eyes bright and a cheeky little smile on her lips even as she showed off that rifle strapped to her back, a tiny little engine of destruction who looked like she'd still have that cute little grin on her face as she filled you full of holes.

Weiss strode along, probably through a combination of the boots urging the motion and some subconscious confidence from the way Kai looked at her now, exuded pure sex, a creature of sensuality, all grace and languid desire, and an easy smirk on her lips that said she'd cut the tongue out of anyone that said anything uncouth.

Blake had let a cool expression come over her face, golden eyes glinting sharply, her movements those of an upright panther, some beast from the shadows that had prowled out into the night to do whatever dark work came to her mind and could no more be dissuaded than the sun could be kept from setting.

Yang walked tall, straight-backed, more of a swagger than anything, a lopsided smirk on her lips, fingers lightly curled. Everything about her said she was practically begging anyone and everyone to start a fight at her, because she knew she'd win without breaking a sweat and would greatly enjoy reducing her opponent to a stain on the sidewalk.

The night creatures of Makarzia looked over at them as they stepped off of the empty street into the more crowded parts of the night...

... and the night creatures made way.

Kai's smirk grew, just a little.


	2. Interlude 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back on Remnant, someone notices Kai's departure.

January 12, 244 AGW, 10:08 AM (Remnant 4482)

Salem raised her head slightly, corpse white lips pressing together more firmly as she rose from her throne, turning to slide over to the windows. She didn't bother to notice the scattered glass still laying on the floor cutting her feet to shreds. Why bother to acknowledge pain when the injury was as fleeting as the fog of a last breath on a cold day.

"Now where," she said slowly, red eyes staring out across Remnant intently. "Did you just go?"

She turned her head somewhat, the gems and pins in her hair swaying slightly with the motion as there was a knock at the massive doors. "What?"

One of the doors pushed open, Cinder's meek little dog slipping into the room, head bowed. "Your majesty," she acknowledged to the floor, red eyes flitting up ever-so-briefly towards Salem herself.

"I trust you would not be bothering me if you had not done what I sent you to do?" Salem prompted, gliding down the short steps that led up the windows.

The girl... Emerald, that was her name... shuddered slightly, and Salem let herself smile just slightly at the extra rush of fear that bled off her. No doubt her little flight to the mainland atop a wyvern had not been terribly pleasant. "I... yes, your majesty."

"Good. Set it on the table." Salem crossed to one of the other windows. 

"I... yes, your majesty, of course," Emerald muttered, wilting further as she edged over the table, trying to avoid the glass. "... Um... your majesty...?"

Hm. Her voice had actually trailed up at the end. A question? Cinder's pet was feeling bold today. Salem turned her head very slightly. "What is it, Emerald?" she asked, putting just a bit of lyrical tone into saying the girl's name. 

Yes, that was some rather sweet fear too. A particular tingle down the spine, she could sense that it was almost an excitement and a rush in the girl's blood as well as the terror. "I... um... why did you send me for... that?"

Salem just let her head remain in position, before slowly turning her gaze back to the window. "If I wished you to know, I would have told you when I sent you."

"... R-right... um. Right." Emerald bobbed her head quickly, setting down what she'd been sent for with a soft crinkle and a little click. "Sorry. I'll... go." She quickly backed away and ducked out.

Hm. That one was actually... fun. A little bit. Her counterpart was ultimately rather dull... just a mixed-up boy trying to be a very bad man. Bluster and eagerness to prove himself the worst of the worst. That sort was useful, but very rarely entertaining. 

Salem turned her head a little to the other side now, eyeing the floating Grimm nearby, a slow, steady storm of black and red playing out inside its body, finger-thin tendrils drifting below it. She would alert Watts that one of his traps might have been triggered, though if what she'd felt was accurate, it may have been for naught. They would have to see.

But she decided it could wait a few minutes, at least. She turned and drifted back to the table, gazing down at what Emerald had brought back with her, tilted her head slightly, regarding it like a cat who had not yet decided whether the mouse it was playing with was dead enough. Then she slid into the nearest chair and settled.

Cellophane crinkled. A tiny burst of flame flickered to life and lit her corpselike face for a moment.

A breath in. A breath out with a long plume of smoke.

Salem tilted her head the other way, regarding the cigarette held between two of her fingers.

'I suppose it  _ is _ a little relaxing.'


	3. The Corridor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai, Ilia, and Team RWBY accept their first mission as a Makarzian job crew... they must clear a vital travel route of automated drones to allow the Geneslicers to start receiving traffic from the other gangs again. But the drones have a living coordinator, and Kai knows what she needs to do to actually resolve this threat... and wonders if her relationship with Weiss will survive it.

February 25, 2993, 03:34 (Local Makarzia time)

Having taken a little stroll just to confirm that her crew blended... and could strut... Kai shifted her focus a bit. Time to get to work.

_ Cam? _

_ Kai, _ the slightly prim reply came back immediately. Cammy sounded less sour about using the psycomms... but then, a check of the date showed that more time had passed on Makarzia than Remnant. Showed what they got for using cheap rigged-up spot-to-spot beacons.  _ Niobe said you were back and looking for work. I'm glad you're back, we could use you. _

Kai felt her lips curl.  _ Damn, Cammy, that sounded dangerously close to sincerity, you feeling okay? _

_ Haaaaa. I won't let it happen again. You ready to get to work? _

_ No time like the present. _

_ Meet me on 257th and Jhonen, you'll need some gear I'm fairly certain you don't have for this. _

_ On my way, _ Kai sent back, flitting a hand to the side to indicate to the others they were changing course and turning down another street.

Team RWBY was doing a good job strutting their stuff, though as they made their way from the more populated sidewalks they fell back into looking around more tourist style. Oh well, they'd get the hang of it. Ilia, however, was still strutting easily enough, and after a moment glanced over at Kai.

_ Is it weird that the only reason I'm uncomfortable is that I'm not more uncomfortable to be back here? _

_ Heh, nah, I getcha, Rainbow, _ Kai sent back, flicking her eyes to her side.  _ This place settles on you like a pair of sweat-slimy old boots. Gross but familiar and fitting. _

_ That is a disgustingly perfect way to describe this place. I can't get over the fact that I'm actually a little glad to be back here. _

Kai was silent at that for a moment, both externally and internally. Then she admitted,  _ Same. I love it on Remnant... but this. This I know how to handle. Being in debt, basically, and working to meet it... I can do that all damn day, as opposed to saving the damn world. This is the weirdest vacation I ever thought of, but damn if it doesn't feel like one. _

As they approached the intersection, Cammy slipped out of the shadows, Kai gesturing the others to a stop and stepping forward a couple of extra feet to meet her.

"Kai. This is your new crew that Niobe mentioned?" Cammy asked, purple eyes skimming across Team RWBY, something vaguely like affection and even a little pride flickering across them as they passed over Ilia as well.

"Yeah. You know Ilia. That's Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, and Weiss Schnee," Kai said, turning to indicate each with two fingers, then grinning and adding at the last. "My girl. So be nice."

"I'm always fuckin' nice," Cammy answered breezily, the casual profanity almost as welcoming to Kai as the damp, smelly streets. "They're good?"

"They're fuckin' insane, combat maniacs and warriors from Hell every one," Kai replied without hesitation. "But, they're not stone colds. Let's steer clear on any straight-up wetwork, Cam, not really my style anymore."

"Understood, this isn't that." Cammy withdrew a holopuck and projected an image of the megablocks that made up Tailtown. "This is us, obviously." She clicked a button, showing red-tinted blocks surrounding the yellow ones used to indicate Tailtown on three sides. "And these are the areas the Demons have effectively seized control over.

"Damn. Guess the NAP doesn't mean they can't lay siege, huh?"

"A nonaggressive siege, but yes, they've got us pinned in. Which means the main artery left to us, and to other gangs, to access Tailtown is the Corridor." Cammy clicked a button again, the holograms of the city blocks shrinking back and sliding to the side to show a wide, long bridge. "Unfortunately they've recently come up with a way to choke off the Corridor as well.  They've set up a fleet of motodrones on either side of the Corridor, the ones on this side just barely outside of what's been settled on as Tailtown's border. They seem to be programmed with some list of gangbangers... they only attack vehicles carrying them."

Kai snorted. "And if they only go after gangbangers, not civvies or lawenoff, the law doesn't give a shit."

"Right. It does seem that the Street Demons are cannier than we thought, or maybe they're just becoming that way. Either way, we've got a contract from multiple gangs... the Geneslicers are the go-to for listing this sort of job with now. There will be a bounty for every motodrone you destroy... and just as importantly, you'll be helping get trade with the Transcendants, Holy Dragons, and Syndicate flowing again."

Kai quirked an eyebrow at that last, but decided not to ask for the moment. "They got a director?"

"Yes. Will that be a problem?"

"No. Speedercycles?"

"In there," Cammy said with a tilt towards a nearby garage door, tossing Kai a button fob.

"Thanks Cam. Hey, could you see to keeping this stuff safe for us?" Kai added, gesturing for the others to set down their bags.

"Sure. The Down Boy is home base these days, and there are plenty of apartments overhead, I'll have some assigned to all of you. Just ask Buzz for the keycards when you get back."

"Thanks babe, you're the best," Kai declared breezily, kissing two fingertips and flicking them through the air before heading for the garage, Cammy starting to gather up the bags.

"Well she's very... curved. In places," Weiss muttered a bit as they gained some distance from the cat-eared genemod.

Kai chuckled. "Relax, Snowbird, Cammy only likes guys." 'When she's sober,' the redhead knew better than to say aloud.

The garage door rolled up, revealing a relatively small interior space with a trio of basic speedercycles, with some minor modifications for greater speed and stability. Kai eyed them, but decided they were probably up to the task of their needs for this one. Yang seemed both curious and slightly unimpressed as well... they were definitely no Bumblebee.

"Alright, let's double-up. Yang, Ilia, you drive, Ruby and Blake, you're riding bi-" Kai cleared her throat. "Behind. Weiss, with me. Front concentrates on driving, back concentrates on taking out the motodrones."

"And what are those, when they're at home?" Yang asked as she swung astride one of the cycles, bending to scoop up the helmet beside it, Blake deploying the built-in one on her jacket as she settled behind her partner.

"You'll know 'em when you see 'em, I have no doubt," Kai scoffed as she swung astride one of the others, picking up the helmet and proffering it to Weiss.

"Don't you need one too?" Weiss asked, pursing her lips.

"I rode helmetless all the time even when I didn't have a personal forcefield, it'll be fine for this. Now, guys, here's the deal," Kai continued, turning a little to look at the others. "The drones will probably have one actual person with them, a director. Should look distinct enough, but just in case I'll point 'em out to you if they come out. If the director does come out, leave 'em to me."

"And when you say 'leave them to you'...?" Blake said slowly.

"I mean I'll kill the director." Kai launched the bike's startup sequence and revved it a little to check the engine's readouts. "The drones are just AIs, not sentient, so don't worry about them they're not any different than killing Grimm. But if the director steps to us, and he probably will, I'll do the actual person." She glanced aside again, eyes hard. "Everyone ready?"

"... Yeah," Yang answered after a moment, flipping the visor of her helmet down, voice coming out electronically modulated now. "Ready."

"Let's go," Ilia agreed, having given Ruby her bike's helmet, revving her own motor.

Kai opened her throttle up bit by bit, curving out of the garage and hitting the street, heading for the Corridor. Some god-awful long time ago, some government fuckup had decided he could save money by only powering the tectonic stabilizers at bare minimum. As a result, his megablock and two others had suffered one of the worst planetquakes on record, and completely collapsed into the Dark. The rest of the politicians had shrugged, constructed a single ten mile bridge spanning the gap, and called it a day.

Kai still wondered how they'd gotten the supports anchored somewhere down in the Dark. That was one of the only things the government had ever done that legitimately mystified and impressed her.

_ Alright, if Cammy's right, then me and Ilia are definitely in these thing's databases,  _ Kai sent to the others, Ilia pulling up a bit alongside her, anticipating her next order. _ So Yang, hang back a little, let the motodrones close in on us some, then Blake'll have first shot from behind. _

_ Got it. _

_ Kai, _ Weiss's mental voice spoke up, having the tinge that indicated it was a direct send.  _ Are you really... okay... with this? _

Kai glanced briefly over her shoulder before focusing on the road ahead.  _ Yeah. I am, _ she admitted, because as much as she wanted to believe she'd been starting to look towards being a hero on Remnant, to change who she was, she'd looked everywhere inside her the moment Cammy had said what the job was... and could not find a single part of her that had a problem with taking a Street Demon's life.

_ Weiss. This is what I need to do, if we really all want to get back to Remnant... back home. ... I'll understand if you can't accept that. Us, after that. _

_... I'm not sure, _ Weiss admitted into the mental channel, hugging her arms tighter around Kai's middle nonetheless.  _ If I'm honest, I'm not sure. I'd accepted completely that you used to do... things like that. Kill people. But I thought it was behind you. _

_ So did I. But over the next few months, you're going to see a different me that didn't set foot on Remnant. It's gonna look a lot like the old me. The Makarzian me. _ Kai inhaled the night air rushing past her face, tried not to think how exhilarating it was to be racing a speedercycle down semi-permanently damp pavement again.  _ And like I said... if you can't love the Remnant me after seeing the Makarzia me, I'll understand it. Just the way things are. _

Weiss was silent at that.

Soon enough the bridge and the chasm it spanned came into view. Kai knew it had to be an awesome sight for the Remnantites... a vast canyon formed not of stone, but of layers of basement, old city, and pipework, quickly fading down into an inky blackness deeper than the dark of the night... especially on Makarzia, where the night sky never truly went fully black, the smog carrying too much light from the rest of the city through its thick haze. The bridge itself was twelve lanes, a pathetically simple and low guard rail running along either side along with a similarly halfassed white glowpainted bump running down the middle to indicate where the direction change happened.

The Corridor looked deserted... it was still well into night creature hours, and Kai suspected that civvie traffic had slowed a lot anyway. Even if the motodrones only went after gangbangers, the potential to see or be witness to that sort of gangfight would scare off most daytimers or noncom night creatures. The speedercycles bumped ever so slightly as they transferred from road to bridge, starting up the almost imperceptible incline of it towards the center.

_ Dance With the Dead - Robeast _

Almost the moment they hit the bridge, there was the roar of overclocked engines and silvery riders on silvery bikes came tearing out of alleyways on either side of the road, turning and taking off towards the lead two bikes. The motodrones looked more like action figures than real people, seemingly attached to their bikes in places, generalized humanoid forms that screamed 'robot', their heads bullet-shaped with long, side-to-side upward curved horns attached to them, the fronts bearing pulsing red T-shaped sensors.

_ And there's our director _ , Kai confirmed, glancing over her shoulder again as she picked out one figure amidst the drones. He'd tried to dress to match, wearing silvery motorcycle leathers and a helmet in the style of his drones' heads, riding the same sort of bike with wide, grippy tires to allow for ease of combat. 'Damn, half hoped the fucker wouldn't be so eager to get after us.'  _ Like I said, leave 'im to me. Ilia, let's lead them on a bit and spread them out. The moment Blake opens up the director will add her and Yang to these thing's target databases so I want to give her a chance to get as many as she can in that first salvo. _

_ Got it, _ Ilia responded, opening up her throttle a bit more and banking off to one side, Ruby's poncho flapping lightly through the air behind her.

Kai drove over that pathetically low divider bump and into the empty oncoming lane, weaving back and forth just a little to make sure she looked like she was having to bleed off uncontrolled motion, making herself look more vulnerable. Several of the motodrones crossed the bump as well, closing in on her, one starting to draw up even.

She kept expecting to feel fear as the large, deadly robot pulled up closer on her. But even as she let it close with her, let it draw even, watched as it raised its hand to the side to point the built-in shotgun barrels capping its forearm at her face, she didn't.

Because she wasn't alone, and she trusted the people with her absolutely.

_ Okay, Blake, light 'em up. _

A chatter of high speed nine millimeter rounds tore through the night, clanking as they impacted the armored back of the drone. It could have shrugged off any number of single shots, but the absolute hail of them in a tight area had the bullets tearing through, piercing into circuitry and vital mechanisms. A gout of electricity and then fire consumed the drone's upper body, its bike tumbling and slamming on its side to the pavement, both the bike and drone exploding as they were hit by one of the others, a secondary explosion following as the other suffered the same fate.

Kai saw the director's head whipping to the side in the small sideviewer, obviously realizing he'd let himself get too focused in on following his drones' sensor feedback and hadn't noticed the third bike. There was just a moment of reactionless riding from his drones as he reacted and updated, and Ilia took advantage, cutting throttle and dropping back between the two drones that had been trying to flank her, Ruby utilizing her rifle's own autofire barrel to take out the front tires, the drones twisting and laying it down. Blake took out another of the drones behind Kai before whipping her pistol down, taking out the ones Ruby had laid down in passing, in moments significantly reducing the director's force.

Unfortunately it wasn't all good news.

_ Kai, this is Jita, I'm watching from a building on our side of the Corridor, _ a voice said into Kai's head.  _ Looks like the director just summoned the drones from the other side of the bridge too, you've got more baddies inbound. _

_ Got it, thanks. _ Kai leaned the bike to bank slightly closer to the middle, sending to the group,  _ Guys we've got more drones coming from ahead, keep spread out, don't let them push us together or try to force us to lay it down. _

* * *

"Know what? I'll be honest. I was already enjoying myself.

"It didn't feel like it at the time because I was so focused, but that was exactly why I was enjoying myself. All of the problems... whether Weiss would still love me by the time we got back, what was happening to our friends on Remnant, Salem... it had all faded away. There was just focus.

"There was just the job. The moment. A simple, direct objective. Destroy the drones. Kill the director. Stay alive.

"This was me all day."

* * *

The approaching motodrones came into view, one in each lane in a straight line, the wide bikes and ready weapons just enough to make any idea of trying to drive between them suicidal. 

_ Open throttle, make a hole in the incoming, _ Kai sent, the other two bikes drawing even with her.  _ We can't get pinned down, I want them all on one side of us.  _ She didn't even blink as Weiss unsheathed the ninjato from within the folds of the pretty white coat and swung it over her head to angle down at the side of the racing cycle.

Kai could tell what the director had in mind... he was figuring that if he had to, he'd lose a few more drones in head-on collisions playing chicken with his targets, as long as it meant taking them out. He didn't seem to have realized quite yet that for one thing, they were there specifically to take out the drones, and for another that whatever commscramblers the drones had that should have knocked out the helmet comms didn't work on psycomms.

Or that his targets were used to far more stressful situations than this and were taking it all in stride as part of the plan.

Blake and Ruby opened fire, taking out the drones directly in front of them.  _ Kai, get ready, _ Weiss sent, bringing the ninjato up to point forward. The redhead felt Weiss's fingers curling against her belly, and for just a moment a little thrill shot through her, despite knowing the purely utilitarian nature of the motion and the rest of the situation.

She couldn't help it. Weiss touching her was always exciting, no matter what kind or where it was.

A black glyph circle appeared directly in the path of the drone ahead of them. Its tires made contact and it was like the bike just stopped, the sudden deceleration flinging the drone forward, trailing cables as its connection to the vehicle snapped. Kai juked out of the way of it, let its path carry it into two of the drones behind them with a clatter and another small explosion, the glyph disappearing just in time for her to angle hard and lean down with a squeal of tires, zipping past the stopped bike.

She saw the drones have some reactionless riding for a moment before starting to turn and form up, but their motions were a little jittery.  _ His control's going janky even though he's got less drones to direct, _ Kai sent with a smirk.  _ Weiss's glyph confused the hell out of him, so let's give him something else to consider. Ruby, Blake, switch places. _ Her eyes flashed wickedly.  _ Make it showy. _

Kai could almost feel Ruby grinning through the psycomm, both women rising to their feet to stand on the back of the bikes with little trouble, and then leaping into the air. Ruby twirled into her Semblance, becoming a flickering mass of red cloth and shedding a trail of rose petals through the air. Blake formed a shadow clone of herself in midair, clasping forearms with it and letting it yank her through the air and down towards Ilia's bike. Both of them landed facing backwards.

Now having a much better firing position, Blake started putting Kai's advice into work, simply putting as many bullets into the air as she could in the direction of the motodrones, even as the director came close to laying down his bike in shock at the display of apparent superpowers. Ruby instead started picking her targets, using the lower barrel of her gun to fire higher-caliber single headshots. Weiss turned in the seat and angled her ninjato, an angled acceleration rune appearing in front of a drone and sending it shooting up and over the side barrier, arcing up and then disappearing down into the Dark.

_ Ah shit, _ Kai thought as the director finally wised up, apparently having identified her as his counterpart. His remaining drones formed into a tight wedge in front of him and to his sides, clearly primed to peel off and away as they were shot, forcing Kai into hard, snapping weaves. She considered telling Ruby to try and get a clear headshot on the director, then cursed the thought out of her mind, instead snatching one of the pistols out of her coat.

As the group drew even, one of the motodrones raised its arm to point its guns at Kai. Weiss's sword dove into the space between its upper arm and torso, the slender blade striking something either volatile or at least reactive, the drone lurching hard to the side and laying it down.

The director was waiting on the other side of it. Kai whipped her pistol up, but his was already raised and ready, and he fired first.

The heavy ceramicoat bullet smashed the pistol out of her hand and entered through her palm as her entire body flashed with scarlet light that then dispersed off of her in a thousand tiny will-o-the-wisps, the projectile passing through her forearm like it wasn't even there and exiting just below her elbow, whizzing just past Weiss's visor and spraying the plain white helmet with Kai's blood.

"FUCK!" the redhead howled as her arm dropped to her side, with the other desperately trying to control the bike's motion from the reflexive yank she'd given on the handlebars. She wove, trying to bleed off momentum, her mind entirely focused on not laying it down, not sending Weiss crashing to the pavement.

A loud rifle report preceded the director's front tire shredding, sending him flying forward, the Demon obviously experienced as he tucked into a role that would hopefully keep his bones from breaking. He came to rest on his back, actually starting to sit up, only to have Blake land nearby him and slam the sole of her boot against his chest to pin him.

As the other two bikes circled and came back, Kai managed to slow hers and halfway lay it down in a controlled crash, tumbling off to one side and winding up with her back thumped against the side barrier. Weiss had managed to land in a sort of stumbling walk, and quickly yanked off the bloody helmet, scrambling over and falling to her knees at the redhead's side. "Kai!"

"I'm alright," the redhead hissed as she yanked the jacket down off her shoulders with one hand, despite her next words being, "You need to clamp the bleeder, my medpack's in the left jacket pocket."

Weiss fumbled the medpack out even as a few more reports sounded through the night, the remaining motodrones destroyed even as the others rushed towards Kai. 

"Nnnnh, fuck," Kai grunted, gritting her teeth hard as Weiss followed the little kit's instructions of spraying disinfectant into the wound first, then obviously tried to control the trembling of her fingers as she brought the little clamp towards the bleeding wound in Kai's upper arm.

"Here, I'll do it," Ilia said quickly, nudging Weiss aside and taking the clamp from her. 

Yang stared with wide purple eyes at Kai half-laying there, arm slumped out beside her, a gaping wound in her palm and elbow, the rest of the forearm discolored and slightly misshapen.

Her right fingers twitched.

Then she was turning and stalking back towards the director. Elbowing her lover aside, she took over the other woman's spot, pinning the man down with her foot, staring down at his horned chrome helmet.

The shotgun was swung off of her back and up to point at his face, and Yang pulled the trigger.

Repeatedly.

Kai stared. Everyone was staring. It didn't immediately sink in what had happened. The shotgun blasts were only just fading in the wide open air of the Corridor, smoke was still rising from the barrel, when tears started to slide down Kai's cheeks.

"Goddammit Yang I said I'd do it," she whispered hoarsely, barely noticing the pain of her arm anymore.

"Does it matter?" Yang answered coolly as she swung the shotgun back up and settled it on her back, the magnetic holster she'd installed on the inside of her jacket gripping it. "We all pretty much agreed to it when we came out here knowing what you'd probably have to do. Way I see it, it doesn't really matter which of us pulled the trigger."

The blonde flexed her right hand a few times. "Right then I was okay with it being me."

_ Kai, are you okay? It looked kind of like you laid it down. _

_ I'm busted up pretty bad, Jita, _ Kai sent back, having to struggle a little to focus to use the psycomm.  _ The motodrones are done, so we could really use some pickup. _

_ I'll get my van and be there soon. _

"W-well..." The doctor's large cybereyes twirled and adjusted, the visible shutters inside narrowing and then spiraling back out. Various delicate bits of the four large, inhuman cyberappendages arcing from her back were inserted carefully into the no longer bleeding holes on Kai's arm, the pair of more typically humanoid cyberarms attached to her shoulders working a datapad. Her hair, short and disheveled, had gone prematurely white from the cheap work done to attach her cybernetics, her back slightly hunched from walking so long under the weight of the extra medisurgeon limbs. 

"I h-h-hate to s-say this, b-but it would r-really be b-b-better if you l-l-let me take it off," she murmured, her voice carrying a slightly electronic crackle from the low quality speaker she'd had to use to supplement her voicebox, another casualty of backalley medisurgery to turn her into a backalley medisurgeon. 

"Shit, was afraid of that," Kai grumbled, eyeing her own limb, which now felt little other than the pressure of the gentle probing. "That my only option for full function?"

"N-no, N-N-Niobe's gotten this place pretty stocked," the doctor replied, the corner of her mouth flicking involuntarily to the side. "I could p-p-probably operate to repair some of the d-d-damage, and do an encasement on it while it h-heals. You wouldn't have quite full function for awhile, couple of w-weeks at least, b-b-b-b-but your other option is replacement with a c-c-c-cyberlimb that'll put you back at f-full f-function right aw-w-way."

Kai frowned in concern. "You okay, Twitch?"

"... Y-you'd normally g-g-g-g-g-get super mad if I said th-this," the other woman murmured back, cybernetic eyes staying fixed on your wounds.

* * *

"Twitch was right of course. I wouldn't have been mad at her, I'd have been mad at my situation... but before I met Ilia, before I went to Remnant, I wouldn't have had the emotional maturity to make that distinction.

"I'd have just been mad and Twitch, meek little soul that she was, would have been right there delivering the bad news.

"Of course the circumstances were wildly different. Back then, I'd have probably had maybe enough credits to my name for a few meals if that, and I'd've had to try and pay Twitch for fuckin' surgery out of that, let alone a prosthetic. 

"The very best I might have hoped for would be the old man paying for a cyberlimb that would have given me some marginal semblance of full function, and then making me suffer for even putting him out that much. And after that was done, I'd have been on the streets and out in the multiverse alone again, just now with part of me missing.

"But that me was gone. Whatever I was, I wasn't alone anymore. Whether I still had everything I'd arrived on Makarzia with this time, I wasn't sure, but I knew I wasn't alone. That meant a lot, and it meant I could treat someone who was good, kind, and decent the way they deserved to be treated."

* * *

"Hey, Twitch?" Kai waited for the cyborg to raise her head, then smiled at her. "It's okay. I'm okay. Thanks for this... and all the help you've always given me. You've gone above and beyond more than once, including giving Zee those shots the time she was sick for barely anything. I'm really grateful."

"... You're w-welcome," Twitch murmured, cybereye irises closing and reopening in her equivalent of a blink.

Then Kai grinned. "I actually heal up pretty good these days, I should be fine fast enough. If you can patch me up and put an encasement on that'd be great."

"A-alright."

An apparent side effect of of Niobe retaining Twitch as the Geneslicers' official medisurgeon was that she now had access to the really good conk-drugs. Kai went under without even noticing and woke up with little in the way of any 'hangover', sitting up and raising her arm. A skintight rubber-like material hugged her from fingertip to just above her elbow, the back of the hand and various spots on the forearm dotted with small dull metal sections that blinked with various lights. 

Kai flexed her fingers a few times, then grinned. "Damn, that's some quality encasement work, Twitch. I can use a sword and everything."

"Th-the less you do with it th-the faster it'll h-heal," Twitch pointed out.

Deciding not to point out she'd probably be fine with a good night's sleep to let her Aura recover, Kai swung around and slid to the floor. "How much do I owe you?"

"N-nothing. Niobe s-says Geneslicers d-don't pay, and that you're S-Slicer." Twitch's cybereyes flexed and focused. "B-besides, y-you got me this j-job, and I l-like it."

Kai blinked. "I did?"

"N-Niobe says she h-hired me 'cause I was y-your medisurgeon. Th-this place is a l-lot nicer than my old ap-partment, and the S-Slicers keep me s-safe."

The redhead found herself grinning. "Hey. Twitch. Y'want a hug?"

"... Eh?" Another surprised whirl of the cybereyes.

"Hug. Me. You. Give."

"... Okay."

Kai stepped in and carefully wrapped her arms around Twitch, knowing her bones were probably a little brittle, slipping her hands between the space between the medilimbs. Twitch slowly raised her own hands and rested them on Kai's back, seeming bewildered but a little pleased.

"Thanks for the assist, Twitch, I'll see you around," Kai assured her, straightening up and go to unhook her jacket, making a face at the bullet hole in the elbow. 'Damn. ... Eh.' Shrugging, she draped it over her other arm and stepped out.

She found Ilia and Team RWBY waiting, either leaned against walls or squatted near the floor, Yang pacing anxiously. The blonde turned at the sound of the door opening, purple eyes widening as they locked on Kai's right arm, and with a roar of rage she turned and punched a hole in the wall. "I  _ knew _ it!"

"Huh?" Kai blinked repeatedly, then gave a low 'erk' and raised her right hand towards Yang, then yanked it back down when she realized that was likely only making things worse. "Whoa whoa whoa Firebird, calm down, it's not a prosthetic."

"... Huh?" Yang blinked, turning back towards her.

"It's an encasement, it's just applied over my arm," Kai assured her, stepping closer and lifting the limb to show her. "It helps it heal faster and covers the wound, it'll make sure I can use my arm until my Aura recovers and my Semblance kicks in, that's all."

Yang's shoulders slumped, then she clapped both hands to her face. "You damn near gave me a heart attack... ... ow," she added flatly, lowering her right hand and flexing her sore cheek a bit.

"Sorry, I shoulda sent from in there but I was pretty fuzzy-headed," Kai admitted sheepishly, glancing around at the others... her heart sinking as she saw Weiss hanging back, eyes a bit downcast. The redhead grimaced, taking a deep breath and regarding the group. "... Guys, listen, about what happened-"

"What happened... happened," Blake interrupted, just a little sorrowfully. "And I think we all understand now that it was... necessary."

"Niobe came by to check on you, and give us our room keys," Ruby spoke up. "And she told us about what the Street Demons do. To... everyone. The way they destroy and hurt people just because, the way they don't stop or care about mercy, all of it. And..."

The silver-eyed woman lowered her head a bit, pretty squeak of a voice going soft. "You said that when we came here, we wouldn't be doing very Huntress-like things. And I guess that's true. But... it seems to me like even if we do larcenous, um, stuff, we can still be the ones who stand between the innocent and evil. ... And it sounds like the Street Demons are evil."

"We'll do what's necessary," Blake said, her voice having firmed up. "To get us, and you, home. And to protect each other and other innocent people. ... We'll do what's necessary," she repeated more softly, eyes lowering a little.

"... Right," Kai murmured, finding she had to look down as well. "Yeah, well. Okay."

"Oh, um, here," Ruby spoke up, proffering a paper envelope. "Niobe said to give you this, it's your room key and some credits, she says she's setting us up accounts for the rest of the money from the, you know... bounties."

"'Kay, thanks Rubes. Let's head upstairs and get some sleep," the redhead said with a sigh. "We don't work while the sun's out, so may as well start getting used to the vampire life now."

Kai had to admit the elevator wasn't bad for Makarzian standards. It barely rattled or shrieked at all, and was  _ slightly _ clean. 'I can do something about that,' she thought with a glance up, absentmindedly filing it into a list she didn't really realize she was making.

The team dispersed from the elevator, heading out to the rooms marked on the cards. Kai tapped hers on the sensor and opened the door, noticing that Weiss stuck close to her side. "Didn't get your own room?"

"I told Niobe I didn't need one. Was that okay?" Weiss murmured back, still keeping her eyes a bit lowered.

"... Yeah, of course, Snowbird, it's great," Kai assured her, letting Weiss step inside ahead of her. 

The apartment was a single room, its only other door obviously the bathroom. A small kitchenette with a counter was directly to the right of the door, and the rest of the room was open, outfitted with a simple, obviously second(+)hand couch and coffee table and a plain, somewhat worn-down wardrobe. The bed was essentially a box built into the floor and wall across from the door, what looked like a foam mattress set into it. A trio of windows were set in the wall, the center wider than the other two, all of them probably solid and flush with the frame, the heavy vertical-drop curtains not quite able to keep the glow of the neon blinking from buildings outside from leaking in and lighting up the bed.

"Well, at least we're on the tenth floor so no upstairs neighbors," Kai tried with a grin, feeling it falter as Weiss just silently shrugged out of her coat and hung it up on one of the hooks to the left side of the door. "... Weiss, are you okay?"

"I'm... I just need a few," she whispered, leaning down to start unzipping the sides of her boots.

Kai wanted to let herself be distracted by Weiss showing off her ass in the pretty little hotpants, but her girlfriend's obvious misery was distracting her a little. She watched Weiss wiggle out of the boots, revealing rather cheap-looking white stockings topped with simple lace, the white-haired woman almost listlessly pulling the holstered gun off of her lower back and setting it on the kitchen counter.

'Dammit.' Muffling a sigh, Kai hung up her own jacket and turned to open the fridge. A half-case of beer, a couple of foodbags, some actual lunch meat, and bottles of water. Not bad, about what had been in the fridge at the old man's (on a good day), only here she could drink the beer and eat the food. She snagged a couple of bottles of water, heading over to the couch where Weiss had sat down on one side and pulled her legs up.

"Here." Kai proffered one of the bottles as she sat down on the other end of the couch. "Oh, right, remember what I said about Makarzian water?"

"Boil or filter it first," Weiss murmured.

"Yeah." Kai looked down at her bottle, focusing on unscrewing the cap and taking a gulp. "... I'm... sorry, Snowbird," she said quietly. "About everyone feeling like they have to stay in this place for my sake. And about, y'know... ... I mean the apartment is pretty nice by Makarzian standards, y'know?" she tried, grinning wanly. "But it's... yeah."

"It's not that," Weiss answered with a sigh and a shake of the head... before she herself grinned a little ruefully. "Okay, if I'm honest, I do hate it a little." Then the smile fell. "Kai, what's actually bothering me isn't any of that, it's just..."

She took a deep breath, let it out as she closed her eyes. "... When that gun went off, and you screamed and... your blood sprayed on me, and the bike yanked under us, I was terrified. And I wasn't scared of crashing, or what would happen to me... I was terrified because I thought you were dead."

Weiss swallowed hard, lifting shimmering ice blue eyes to the redhead. "I mean, I didn't think you or we were going to die, until you shouted and started to get the bike under control there was just... a second... where I thought you were  _ dead _ . ... And I'm having a hard time settling from that," she added with a wan grin.

"... Oh Snowbird I'm sorry," Kai whispered. She set her drink down and reached over, pulling Weiss in towards her, stroking that soft snowy hair, feeling that delicate petite body shudder against her a little, heard Weiss's breath tremble as her forehead was kissed. "I'm so sorry."

Weiss pressed in closer against her, hands coming up to grip the looser front of Kai's tank, her head rubbing in against the taller woman's throat and neck. And then she raised her head, blue eyes moist... but also hot. Hotter than Kai had ever seen them, filled with a silent plea of need.

Kai found her throat tight. "U-um, Weiss?"

"Whatever else it did, it got me right the hell past all those stupid ashamed feelings," Weiss whispered. "I love you... and I don't want to waste a single more day," she added, right before leaning up and kissing Kai with a heat she had never shown before.


	4. The Corridor - Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weiss has decided she's past her feelings of shame, and is ready to make love to Kai... but gets far more than she bargained for as Kai decides to demonstrate just how intense things can be on the dystopian city world. Yang and Blake, a little inspired by all the noise Weiss is making, start getting noisy as well. Ilia and Ruby suffer.

February 25, 2993, 05:08 (Local Makarzia time)

There was an instant, a heartbeat, where Kai almost pushed Weiss away.

Not for her sake, but for Weiss's... Weiss had confided in her about her difficulty accepting her own desires, the trouble she'd had admitting she was a lesbian. That she wanted to wait. And now all of a sudden she was kissing her, tongue diving into the redhead's mouth, everything about the kiss blatantly, eagerly inciting.

But Weiss had thought, for that one terrible moment, that Kai had been dead. That the motodrone director's bullet had claimed her girlfriend's life and there would be no more chances, no more time, and she knew that there was only more of the same ahead.

And Weiss wasn't the only one that had thought that. For that same second, when the gun went off, when she'd felt the impact and the blossom of pain, Kai had thought she was dead too.

And she had far too much living she needed to do.

_ Melodicka Bros - Toxicity _

Kai grabbed Weiss and hauled her in closer, pressing herself into the kiss hard, felt Weiss shiver against her in reaction, for a brief instant hesitating that it might be fear, but then Weiss's moan filled her mouth and she knew it was need.

Something broke inside her. 

She hefted Weiss into her arms and picked her up, a few quick strides, and she was half-dropping her onto the floor-level mattress, instantly on top of Weiss, kissing her, pressing her body over the other woman's, pinning her beneath. 

Her hands found those slender wrists, seeming so delicate, so perfect, completely enclosing them, drawing them over her head to press them against the supporting foam through the sheets. Kai's body rocked down against hers, wanting Weiss to gasp into her mouth, wanting her to moan at the feeling of being taken, dominated. Kai broke the kiss, her head darting down, lips fastening to that slender throat, kissing hard, reveling in Weiss's gasps as Kai marked that perfect white skin with red, the marks of her passion. 

Her claim. Her snowbird. Her girl. Hers to take.

Hers to defile.

Because some part of her that she could no longer deny had always wanted this. This perfect, enchanting creature of pure elegance and refinement that had claimed her heart and soul, not lit in warm sunset's hue or gentle moon's glow, but taken from her place, brought into Kai's. On cheap sheets, the glow of neon lighting her trim breasts as the skimpy streetwalker's top was pushed up, the sound of slick acid rain smacking the windows mingling with her moans as Kai slipped one delicate pink nipple into her mouth to suck roughly. 

To drag Weiss down to her level. Bring her into Kai's world. And take her there, make that angel of pure elegance hers. Mark her, claim her. Dirty her. Make her a part of the same world that would always be as indelibly engraved on Kai's heart as Weiss was.

"Oh god," Weiss gasped out as Kai gripped the whorish little white hotpants, hauling them down roughly and fast, baring her dripping pussy, leaving her in nothing but the pushed-up shirt and the cheap synthweave stockings, legs that Kai knew should be clad in silk spreading for her as her hand slipped between them, Weiss's back arching away from the similarly rough, common blanket beneath them at her lover's touch, her head tossing, those sweet, perfectly-bred lips clad in half-credit lipstick parted in her moans. "Kai... I love you...!"

And Kai loved her. From the very depths of her soul, from a place she never knew she really had, from every single part of her, she loved Weiss Schnee.

But that wasn't what she wanted to hear Weiss say.

Kai rolled her tongue across Weiss's breasts in long, lewd licks, letting her feel saliva on her skin, the heat of it, the absolute animal need of Kai's desire expressed with every touch, every stroke. Weiss's moans shuddered, a few catching in her throat as Kai bit gently at the stiff nubs of her nipples, dragged her teeth over the areola, trying to urge them to turn into thick, puffy caps suitable for sating the redhead's oral lusts on.

Kai slid a hand along Weiss's inner thigh, making her feel how she'd spread herself, shown herself, then slid that hand up her quivering belly, squeezed one of those small pert breasts, making Weiss whimper a bit. Kai's hand brushed her collar bone, lingered on her throat, just long enough to let her feel it, the power, the control, the redhead's need to take her, to claim her, before it slid up, stroking her cheek, thumb sliding around her lips, smearing the cheap makeup.

"Kai," Weiss groaned, turning her head, her tongue lolling over the other woman's thumb, her lips closing briefly around it to suck before she hissed out, " _ Fuck me. _ "

Yes. That's what Kai wanted to hear.

'Mine,' the harsh, greedy, selfish, Makarzian part of her snarled gleefully as she shed the shirts, the pants, and pressed down over Weiss again, bare skin stroking to her beloved's, breasts grinding down on Weiss's own. Kai's thigh pressed up between Weiss's legs, pressing against what on Remnant would have been a soft, sweet sex, and here was just a wet, needy cunt, grinding in against her, letting Kai's own sodden cunt drag along that slender thigh of Weiss's, soak into the cheap stocking. Letting Weiss know that every time she pulled on those stockings, again and again and again, she was touching Kai's pussy again. 

'Mine. My Weiss. My Snowbird. My love. My girl. My bitch. My whore,' Kai growled bestially in her mind, her latex-clad hand turning Weiss's head away so she could drag her tongue along that perfect pretty throat marked with splotches of red passion. 'Mine, mine, mine.'

Hers, forever and ever. Get some Makarzia in her, it would be in her forever. And Kai was part of Makarzia... so she could never, ever be shed again. Taking her. Claiming her. Make her Kai's.

And then Kai stopped thinking entirely. 

It was all bare need, base animal instinct, sucking at that sweet white skin, leaving it marked like any common easy girl, her hands dragging across Weiss's body, sliding fingers into her mouth to feel her tongue swirl around them, just as eager and thoughtless and dirty as Kai was now. Kai pushed those fingers into her, thumbed her clit, made her cum, made her cum and shriek and yowl like an animal, Kai's animal, an animal just like her. 

Pressed her pussy to Weiss's mouth, leave that beautiful, aristocratic face gleaming wet with Kai's arousal as Weiss licked and sucked as if she'd been overpaid, those soft, delicate hands dragging along Kai's back, perfectly manicured nails leaving scratches in skin, gripping the redhead's ass like she was deciding how much to pay for it. 

Kai's tongue on her cunt, claiming her, shamelessly diving to her pucker, making Weiss roll her eyes, making that beautiful face that had adorned album covers curl in a brainless smile, eyes that had gazed out at rapt crowds of wealthy patrons rolling up in her head with the sheer pleasure of a tongue in her ass.

'Mine. Mine. Mine. Never the world's again. Never Remnant's again. Mine.'

"God  _ damn _ ," Yang whispered as another sweet scream came rather clearly through the wall next to them.

"I'd wonder when you started swearing too, but that definitely does seem to warrant a 'god damn'," Blake admitted drolly, laying naked on the floor-level bed, trying not to blush as Yang's golden fingers traced gently up and down her belly.

"You don't scream like that for me," the blonde said teasingly, letting her fingers slide up to start tracing around one of Blake's breasts.

And now she blushed. "We were in a house full of practically everyone we knew. B-besides," she continued, her ears laying down just a little. "I don't really... um... scream. When I get really excited."

Yang hesitated for just a moment... sadly the invisible third person in the room whenever discussing Blake's prior experience was always going to be Adam. But they'd have to get past it someday... talking was what made good lovers, in Yang's admittedly not copious but still relatively varied experience.

So she smiled, and leaned over Blake a little more, and slid her hand down again, smooth, aesthetically-pleasing designed fingers stroking across skin. Yang loved that she could  _ feel _ so much from Blake, the little quivers of her belly beneath the touch, but also the temperature, the pores, tiny fine hairs, the texture as her fingers slid across a recently-shaved crotch.

All the wonderful slickness and warmth and texture in all its many variations as she began gently stroking those sensitive folds, Blake mewling the faintest bit.

"So what  _ do _ you do?" Yang prompted warmly, leaning down to kiss along Blake's cheek and jaw. "When you get  _ really _ excited?" Then she paused, unable to help glancing at the wall again as Weiss gave a sudden joyous shriek. "... Like that?"

"... um..." Blake murmured a bit distantly, turning her head away, cheeks red, a bashful smile curling her lips.

"Mmmm?" Yang kissed down along Blake's throat, admitting that at least the short hair made that easier. "Are you going to make me find out myself, huh?" she cooed, nuzzling up along Blake's ear, then sucking just below it.

"Mmmf. ... M-maybe..."

"Yeah?" Yang chuckled softly, continuing to stroke, to tease those outer folds, sparkling purple eyes watching the shifts on Blake's face, the parting and pressing of her lips, the way her eyelids fluttered, and those always beautiful, always expressive ears. "You knooooow... I don't think I ever got around to asking how you liked them..."

"Th-... them?" Blake asked with a shuddery voice, her fingers clenching a little on the sheets.

"My new fingers, baby. How do they feel? Compared to the real thing?" Yang practically sing-songed.

"They... they feel... they feel very smooth," Blake answered slowly, forcing herself to give a thorough answer, finding that the focus through the haze of pleasure was actually making it brighter, making it build harder. Like giving word to the sensations enhanced them. "They're smooth, smoother all the time as they... as they get wet... they feel... d-different... the shape... stroking me... and... they're... warm and cool both at once... oh gods Yang..."

"Want them inside?" Yang asked very softly, gently nipping one of Blake's human ears as she did.

" _ Yes, _ " Blake breathed, arching her back a little as Yang's hands turned and two slick, smooth golden digits slipped into her.

'I absolutely love this thing,' Yang thought in her own pleasant haze as she worked reactions out of her beloved. The feeling of Blake around her fingers was so intense, so deep and varied, with a little concentration it was almost like having her partner's sweet, hot, grasping pussy wrapped around her entire being. She wondered if what guys felt was anything like this... to be so completely engulfed, to feel so much of somewhere so perfectly hot and smooth and damn if she didn't suddenly sympathize a little more.

She stroked her fingertips along those inner walls, making Blake squirm and gasp and mewl, those sweet kittenish noises she'd deny until the end of time that she made, Yang still kissing and gently nipping that human ear, their bodies pressing together.

But she had something in mind. Blake wanted to be taken to the same height as Weiss was obviously being chauffeured to, before showing just what her own response was, if not screaming? Alright. With the sensitive digits, it was almost insanely easy to find the soft nub of Blake's clit with her thumb even if she wasn't already experienced with that particular task... but then, there was another that was usually trickier, even for her.

Not anymore.

The sleek starship-like contours of Yang's fingers turned inside of Blake, finding just the slightly rougher spot, watching Blake's whole body shudder as she drew in a hard gasp. There might as well have been a little popup that said 'G-spot found'. Yang smirked, giving just the slightest rub to make sure she was settled, to get another hard gasp and shudder out of Blake... and then exercised her new feature.

_ vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm _

"Oh SHIT!" Blake yowled, her hips arching up, her eyes flying wide open, her fists clenching and twisting hard in the sheets. She ground against Yang's buzzing, vibrating fingers like a thing possessed, her eyes rolling slightly. "Oh fuuuuck oh fuck oh my fucking god of fuck oh shiiiiit!"

'Ah, so that's what,' Yang thought with a smug cat grin that even Blake would never be able to outdo as she started thrusting her fingers, her other hand having wandered between her own legs, stroking herself and flicking her own clit as she watched Blake twist and writhe.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck meeeee oh fuuuuuck oh my fucking god please Yang fuck me fuck me oh god yes oh shit," Blake whimpered, her voice having gone breathy, high, and sweet, occasionally dipping back low with her moans. Her eyes rolled up in her head completely after not very long, her teeth clamping down on her lower lip as she gave a sound deep down in her throat, a very distinct splash of wetness dampening Yang's entire golden hand.

'This was absolutely worth all the shit Grey's going to give me for the rest of my life for getting this function,' the blonde thought, chuckling softly against Blake's neck as she kissed and licked.

Ruby Rose sat on the couch... her couch, she supposed, which was a kind of weird and kind of cool thought... trying very hard not to pay attention to any sounds.

Well, the door knocking was a sound she should probably pay attention to.

She hopped up and trotted over to open it. "Oh, hey IliAH!" she squeaked, clapping her hands to her forehead as the other petite woman flicked it. "What wassat for?!"

"For answering the door without checking the viewer panel," Ilia said, pointing at the small screen and button to one side of the door frame.

"Oh," Ruby said sheepishly, then blinked. "Hey, how'd you know I didn't? Gah!" she squeaked as she got flicked again... then eheh'd. "Right, just told you."

"Anyway, I thought I'd come over here on the off chance that maybe you had thicker walls and maybe you couldn't hear-"

"Ohhhh FUCK!" came a barely-muffled cry, followed closely by an absolute yowl of climax from slightly further off.

"Nnno-pah," Ruby replied flatly, popping her lips.

"Riiight." Ilia rolled her eyes. "So I'm thinking tomorrow we remind each other to buy headphones."

"Deal." Ruby then covered a yawn. "Though I'm so tired I think I might even sleep through them," she admitted sheepishly.

Ilia grinned. "Yeah, well, go ahead and sleep all day... the days on Makarzia are kind of short and the nights are pretty long. We'll probably get up and about in the afternoon for prep type stuff."

"Oh, hey, you wanna come in for a minute?" Ruby asked, stepping back.

Ilia blinked... then realized she'd slipped way too into Makarzia mode. That almost certainly meant 'so we can talk' not 'so we can have a quick bit of sex'. Her specks still a bit pink, Ilia stepped inside. "Sure."

"Mostly I wanted to ask you, did you and Kai do a lot of stuff like this when you were here before?" Ruby asked as she flopped back down on the couch, doing her best to ignore Blake and Weiss being noisy down the hall. She blinked, then hurriedly added, "Like the motodrone thing. Like we're gonna be doing."

"Oh, you mean jobs." Ilia nodded in understanding, then shook her head. "No, not really... job crews are almost always three people at least. Kai and I mostly just worked together going out and doing stuff the Geneslicers needed done for the fight against the Street Demons. Jobs are always about earning credits."

"You seem like you know a lot about it, though," Ruby prompted.

"I worked in the comm station for the Slicers for about a year. It... well, it was safer," Ilia admitted. "I didn't have to go out and actually be in Makarzia as much, 'cause, well, it scared me back then. I only started getting out once I teamed up with Kai. But I coordinated for other Slicer job crews a lot, so I generally know how they act and what to do."

"You seem really confident already," Ruby said cheerfully.

"Yeah... even if I haven't actually done this before, I feel like I can just do it, 'cause Kai looks at me with trust and that makes me feel confident," Ilia answered warmly. "I always feel like she knows what she's doing-"

About that time, Weiss, perhaps inspired by Blake, gave a particularly loud " _ FUCK! _ " from down the hall.

"Sounds like it," Ruby murmured, face red.

"... Aaaand I figure if she trusts me that must mean I must know what to do too," Ilia finished sheepishly. "You know what, I think I'm just gonna go back to my room and put a pillow over my head."

"Yeah, same. Night Ilia."

"Night Rubes."

* * *

"Of course in the aftermath I felt guilty.

"Here Weiss had wanted to wait, had only initiated sex because she was desperately afraid of losing me to a bullet or a blade. And I'd descended on her like a crazed animal, given in to my desire to bring her down to my level.

"Because yeah, that was my shameful secret. As much as I loved Weiss's elegance, her gentility, her beauty and refinement, it was part of my nature to see a pristine white wall and want to spray some profanity-laced graffiti on it. I was a street punk down to the bone, no real question anymore.

"I'd needed, absolutely  _ needed _ to take Weiss in a way that etched Makarzia into her like it was etched into me. It had been selfish, and it had been jealous, and it had been done out of the deepest love. Because I loved her too much not to bring her as fully as I could into the world that had crafted me, the parts of it I found best anyway.

"The simplicity. The directness. The  _ intensity _ . Yeah. That was really it. Life on Makarzia was intense. That was what I wanted to show her, I guess... this is me. This is the intense, hungry, possessive, jealous creature that this world has made, and it loves you and wants you and needs you."

* * *

"I kind of got carried away," Kai whispered, stroking her hand gently along Weiss's side, over the sleek curve of her hip, and back up. The stockings had come off at some point, but the scant little shirt remained for now, Weiss laying on her side scooted back against Kai's front. "Especially for a first time. You okay?"

"I mean...  _ whew _ ," Weiss answered with a breathless little laugh. "It was certainly  _ much _ , I'll very definitely agree with that! ... But oh god I don't think I'd have traded that for anything," she admitted. "You hit me like a force of nature... I feel like... I've been standing naked in a thunderstorm, lightning crashing around me and the rain pelting every part of my body."

"When you phrase it like that I'm back to wondering if it was good or bad," Kai murmured, actually feeling her cheeks and ears heat a little.

Weiss was silent for just a moment, giving a slight wiggle. "It's very unexpected... but good. I... liked it, very much. It was absolutely nothing like I expected for my first time, but... I think that made it better somehow?" She rolled and scooted around to face Kai, looking up at her and smiling warmly.

And then the smile turned sultry.

_ Kruder & Dorfmeister - Original Bedroom Rockers _

Kai found herself being rolled onto her back in a smooth, graceful motion that saw Weiss straddling her belly, rise up slowly in the darkened apartment. At some point Kai had slapped the controls near the bed and the apartment lights had turned off and the curtains rolled up, the neon outside catching both in the thick rain battering the window and seemingly all across Weiss, white hair and pale skin almost absorbing the color, making it a part of her, the sound of the rain thumping the window filling the apartment.

"Kai," Weiss said, voice low and very warm as she finally peeled the shirt up and off. She tossed it aside, hands dropping to run down Kai's collarbone, up the rises of her breasts. "Did you want to make me feel... dirty?"

A shiver ran through the redhead's body. She couldn't find a single thing to say.

"Because you made me feel...  _ dirty _ ," Weiss whispered into the neon-lit dark, body sliding smoothly down as she bent, pressing her lips to Kai's collarbone, sucking hard, leaving one of the same marks that dotted her own neck and shoulders. Kai hissed softly as Weiss kissed over the new mark she'd made, as those soft, perfect lips drifted over her skin, occasionally the faintest brush of her teeth.

Weiss's hands stroked down Kai's sides lovingly... and then the nails pressed in, just enough to indent the skin as they slid over the hips. Weiss's ice blue eyes blazed in the dark, somehow untouched by the neon, almost seeming to glow as they fixed on Kai's face, watching as bit by bit she lowered her mouth towards one of the redhead's stiff nipples.

"And I  _ liked _ it."

And then Weiss's mouth was on her, closing around her, hands sliding up, one moving down along Kai's belly, between her legs, elegant fingers pushing inside her as she moaned and arched, the other moving up, that pretty, perfect hand pressing to her throat. Gentle but firm. Claiming.

Hers. Her Kai Sterling. Her Huntress. Her love. Her no-account street punk. Her bitch. Her whore.

Her Makarzia.


	5. The Vulfen Pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew has their first daylight venture on Makarzia, with Kai and Ilia explaining Makarzia's rules and workings to Team RWBY. Called on to work as the sun sets, Niobe reveals that their first job for another gang will be to steal six supercars... for Horace Allfather, the vengeful and powerful gang leader that has so often implied he might be Kai's father.

February 25, 2993, 15:10 (Local Makarzia time)

Kai woke first, as the light was already starting to dim a little through the smog haze. She stood up, the mattress at least good enough that her shifting on it and standing on part didn't jostle Weiss too much, though the white-haired huntress still seemed thoroughly sacked out. Kai stood naked in front of the window, leaning her hands on the sill and looking out at the street below and the building across the street (what passed for her new apartment's view), neon milky and unlit in the light, streets dirty, a steady stream of people carriers passing by on the street and upright daytimers walking past the building politely ignoring the mural.

Daytimers. The people who kept the planet functioning for all the night creatures to play in once the sun set. The people who ran computer systems, ordered food, and very occasionally repaired infrastructure. While there was a disdain for the daytimer lifestyle, the daytimers themselves were an absolute necessity, and the night creatures held a certain amount of respect for them and thus left the daylight hours safe and untroubled. Even the Street Demons, for whatever reason, respected the day, and simply didn't emerge until dark.

No, days were for daytimers. People that wore t-shirts and blazers and slacks. People who went about their business working the upright bodegas and media shops and data entry jobs and all those things that cities needed to keep functioning.

But in about an hour and a half, that would start to change. Those people would already be starting to get ready to go home, to turn the streets over to the night creatures, the bodegas getting ready to set out racks of switchblades and stims and load the shotgun under the counter. Five o'clock was the biggest crossover hour... daytimers and night creatures brushing shoulders in the polite fiction that they were all the same, as the daytimers made their way home and the night creatures made use of the daytimers' amenities before getting down to the business of treating the world as theirs.

Two cultures. Two worlds. One planet.

Makarzia.

Home.

Kai took a cold shower, albeit through no choice of hers, the hot water either simply nonexistent or gone long before she ever stepped foot in the shower. At least it was a tub-length shower even though it was obvious it was never meant to function as a tub, instead of a 'glass coffin'. Not that this place would use actual glass.

She emerged, theoretically dry and wrapped in a towel, to find Weiss sitting up and blinking around blearily, looking rather grumpy. Grinning, Kai urged one of last night's still open waters on her, Weiss glugging it down in a way that said she wasn't really processing actually being awake or alive. The redhead managed to get her up and urged towards the bathroom before finding a place to drape the towel... then heard a yelp through the door.

'That was the "not used to an icy shower" yelp,' Kai thought ruefully as she pulled her clothes on.

"Did you use up all the hot water?" Weiss demanded in a tone that said the relationship they'd consummated last night was suddenly on thin ice, glowering and shivering as she emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel.

"There isn't any, probably," Kai replied consolingly, walking over to help Weiss start rubbing her hair dry. "I'll take a look at the building's hot water heater when I get a chance, okay? Mm, let's put something on those," she said, noticing the hickeys she'd left anew in the sunlight, heading over to her jacket to snag a tube of bruise-remover she'd taken from Hell Blazer.

"Mmf," Weiss murmured as Kai began gently rubbing the gel onto the love marks, which rubbed away gradually a bit like coffee being cleaned off of tile. "... You can leave one or two, if you want," she murmured.

Kai blinked... then grinned. '... Okey-dokey! ♥️'

"Tell you what, once Niobe gets that account set up, I'll buy us a little space heater or something, start making this place a bit more comfy," Kai assured her as she rubbed her lover with the towel.

"Don't we need to save all our money for that beacon and the guest pass thingies?" Weiss said with a bit of a frown.

"It's a  _ lot _ of credits, Snowbird, spending a couple hundred here and there won't make much difference."

Weiss eyed her a little as if not entirely buying that explanation... then shrugged. "That does sound nice."

"We're gonna be here for a few months at least so we'll make this place as homey as we can until then, yeah?" Kai grinned and pecked Weiss's nose, gratified to see that such random tiny romantic gestures still made Weiss blush a little. 

"Yeah," Weiss whispered after a moment, leaning up to return the nose-kiss. Though she just barely managed.

'She's so short,' Kai thought, just as adoringly as ever.

Once Weiss was close to being dressed, Kai marched down the hall, banging on the doors she'd seen the rest of her crew entering the night before. "C'mon c'mon, up up up! You want food made for decent upright folks that pay their taxes, up and out now, else it's scraps for scalliwags, let's go, let's go!"

By the time they emerged from a side exit of the building, they definitely weren't the only night creatures on the streets. People in asymmetrical jackets and scanner visors walked past those in business casual attire, and everyone obeyed the polite fiction that they both belonged there. Team RWBY seemed both amused and slightly mystified by this as they followed Kai a few streets over to a restaurant that seemed to be mostly outside seating.

_ Have fun last night, Weiss? _ Yang sent, apparently to preserve some amount of propriety, grinning.

_ Why yes, I did! _ Weiss chirped, tilting her head smugly to show off one of the remaining love marks.

_ You don't need to show us your hickeys, the walls aren't thick, everyone on our floor and the one under us heard you, _ Yang added smugly, actually making Weiss blush now.

Ilia snorted and said aloud, "Like you're one to talk. Or should I say two?"

Now it was Yang and Blake's turn to blush.

"This place's name is in a particularly archaic and formal type of Nipponzi and the owner made it really long just to be a dick, so I call it 'Send Noods' to be a bitch," Kai explained as she flopped down in a chair at one of the tables. As the others were getting settled, she spotted the waiter, an older man with a thick plumage of black feathers instead of hair and a slightly pointed face, gesturing a finger in a circle. "Hey, beef and caff, all around."

"Uh, excuse you?" Yang said with a quirked eyebrow.

"Trust me, you don't want anything else here. The beef-flavored ramen is decent and cheap, and the caff, coffee, is middling, which is about as good as it gets without waking up fully dayside and going to somewhere that'll charge you more than what I'll pay for this whole meal for a cup."

"But they have fish ramen," Blake said with a frown, looking at the menu laminated into the tabletop. Then at Kai rapping on said tabletop and pointing, she followed the redhead's finger towards an aquarium built into the wall, where several fairly unidentifiable species of fish floated listlessly. They were unidentifiable partly because the water was very, very murky. "Oh," she murmured, ears laying down.

"Okay so that reminds me, clearly we need to go over rules, so I'll start out with them general order of importance," Kai said, holding up a finger. "Rule number one of Makarzia, most important rule, do not ever, ever kill a cop."

Team RWBY cast nervous glances at the waiter currently filling Kai's mug from a carafe, but the man didn't even blink at the redhead's statement, just continuing to fill mugs before heading inside again.

"That's rule one and the absolute most important. You can get away with damn near anything else, but do anything to avoid killing a cop. The police leave us the fuck alone as long as we don't basically shove what we're doing in their face and make some efforts to lay low, but kill one and they haul out the big guns. That is heat no one wants. So tied to rule one, rule two, do not call the cops on anyone. Handle it yourself."

"I mean we're Huntresses, so," Yang said with a shrug, her tone rather lackadaisical, propping her chin up on her golden palm. 

"Alright, less important but still very important rules. No gangbanger bullshit while the sun's out. Talking about it is fine, people are used to that, but we only work after sundown. Makarzia has long damn nights so there's plenty of time to work, don't get tempted to do it in daylight. We don't even have fights in the sun, we settle it after dark. Also, never drink the tap water without filtering it or boiling it first, just... don't. Do not order the fish, unless you are allowed to see the fish they are going to use and it does not look like that," Kai continued, pointing both index fingers at the aquarium, and giving the waiter a flat look when he glowered at her while setting down her bowl of beef-flavored broth and noodles. "Y'don't wanna be an example then clean it, y'fuck. Next rule, always expect the coffee to be literally poison," she added as Ruby finally took a mouthful after abandoning her search for sugar, then almost spit it back out. "Then when it's just 'awful', you can be pleasantly surprised."

"Nice little planet you've brought us to," Blake remarked dryly as she arranged her chopsticks in her hand.

"Your world has monsters made of hate and fear that want to eat you if you get upset and I wanted to move there, what about that makes you think my planet was 'nice'?" Kai looked at Blake as she bobbed her head sheepishly, then continued. "Alright, I'm gonna point out some gangs to you guys so you can know who they are. See those guys over there? Nice suits but kinda lounge lizardy, visible bits of dragon tattoo," she said, gesturing towards a further-off table where a couple of them were eating their own ramen, but drinking beer. "Those are Holy Dragons. They're a Neokuza clan. Neokuza have an image they like to maintain of 'gentlemen gangsters', they have a code based around honor, loyalty, and family. The Holy Dragons are alright for a gang, if you need help and you can't find a Geneslicer, go to one of them. They'll expect something in return, but if you treat them with respect and make it clear you're willing to owe, they'll probably help you out. Especially if you speak a little Mistralian to them, it's close enough to Nipponzi that it will put them in a good mood."

"Those guys over there are what we call Syndicate," Ilia picked up, nodding her head a little toward some men across the street in much more formally-cut three piece suits in red and black. "They're a gang run by a guy called Horace Allfather. They're super rich and have really great gear. They're also complete jerks so don't ever mess with them if you can help it. But also don't take any crap from them 'cause they're all bullies... you let them push you around and I think they put you on a friggin' list 'cause they'll all do it."

"Huh, reminds me of Junior's guys," Yang murmured.

"Horace is probably in the doghouse gangwide because he broke rule two not long before I left, besides getting himself in some hot water at an intergang meeting. Normally he's the 800 pound street sweeper droid of the gang world but I bet he's having to recover face right now. If we do ever have to deal with him, be direct, don't show weakness, don't challenge him too directly, and don't break your word to him. He's as vengeful as the night is long," Kai explained, still a little curious to know why Syndicate guys were even welcome in Tailtown, considering the bad blood between Niobe and Horace when she left. 

"Now, okay, over there in the alleyway, kinda slouched, looks like a total space case, glowy interior jacket and vape mask," Kai continued, gesturing generally. "That's a Transcendant. They're not a fighting gang, all they do is chems... crafting, making, dealing. As a general rule they're pacifists. They follow a philosophy that chem use can bring them closer to absolute enlightenment. They also usually have something that will help with wounds, or at least keep you going until you can get to a proper doc."

"Which brings us toooo medical care," Ilia spoke up, seeming rather cheerful to finally have a realm where she had more experience than the rest of her friends. She pointed to a clinic with her chopsticks. "Those are all over the place, they'll get you fixed up enough to walk out usually, and it's not too expensive. But they also autoreport things like gunshot wounds to the lawenoff and one might actually come out, so if it's something like that, avoid them unless you're practically dying."

"Most of your medical care will come from back alley unlicensed medisurgeons of various degrees of competency," Kai said dryly. "Niobe's pilfered one of the better ones around, Twitch, for her base so we're good on that one."

"Our doctor is named 'Twitch'?" Weiss muttered, twitching a bit herself.

"She twitches, her cybernetics don't, it's fine. Now, if you can't make it back to the Down Boy and you need a medisurgeon, ask a Transcendant or Dragon, they'll know the nearest one that's not likely to kill you and both will probably point you that direction for free. There's various other gangs, but the only two really relevant ones are people you won't see out just yet... the Freedroids and the SeXXY Bitches, aka the working girls. Freedroids are exactly what they sound like... they're sentient, artificial lifeforms. Their brains are software but they're still pretty much people, and the more you treat them like that the more likely you'll get along with them. They mostly keep to themselves, but the Street Demons have declared war on them as much as anyone else, so they may be more out and about now, especially here in Tailtown since it's safe. Ish. Which is another good note, don't assume that because there's an NAP between the Street Demons and the Geneslicers with regards to Tailtown means that other gangs won't start shit here."

"And I guess the 'working girls' are what they sound like?" Yang asked dryly.

"Yup. There used to be two heads of two different factions of streetwalkers, but since one of them gave her life protecting the other one, guessing everyone's reporting to her now," Kai replied, expressions around the table going a little more solemn. "She's called Pink-neechan, and she's more of a mother hen than a gang leader, but still don't piss her off. She can exert pressure on damn near any other gang leader she wants and make life distinctly uncomfortable for someone that gets on her bad side."

"And how does one do that?" Blake asked, sipping up the last of her broth and clearly trying not to make a face as she did it.

Kai decided to leave out 'prostitution without following her rules', since Pink-neechan considered that more of a mild nuisance. "Mistreating one of her girls, usually. Or boys, but general slang is to just say 'girls'. Conversely, treating the working girls with sincere respect and kindness is a good way to make a friend on Makarzia. Similarly, helping out a working girl when she needs it won't be forgotten."

"What a weird mixture of awful and noble this place is," Weiss said with a sigh, before tossing Kai a sheepish look.

"Definitely one way to look at it," Kai simply agreed with a chuckle, taking out a fresh pack of cigarettes and tapping one out. "Shit, forgot to take a lighter. Oh, thanks," she said as Yang tossed her the one she took... while taking out her own pack and pulling out a dark pink cigarette.

"What exactly are you doing?" Blake asked, her ears laying down a bit as she pursed her lips at her partner.

"Blending," Yang said cheerfully as she accepted her lighter back and used it, puffing on the cig, and only coughing a little bit. "Gotta look Makarzian, y'know?"

"... Fine. But if you're expecting any kissing later, you can just-" Blake cut off with a sniff... before going flat-faced. "You and strawberries."

"Heheheheh."

Afterward they spent some time hitting shops picking up simple necessities required for day-to-day living. Kai, honestly, found it an interesting thought living on a Makarzia where day-to-day included a toothbrush, mouthwash, and multiple towels, but it was definitely an interesting thought. Oh, and multiple pairs of underwear, also that. She was also absolutely delighted to see Weiss purchasing more of the makeup to match what the styler had used.

She was very, very bad for wanting her girlfriend to keep dressing like a working girl without telling her but she found herself unable to care.

"Hey, yo, you two fuckin' pick some and let's go," Kai called as she marched back into the electronics store to find Ilia and Ruby still poring over different pairs of noise-canceling headphones. "This guy here is not gonna let a bunch of night creatures stay in his store fifteen fucking minutes before sundown. Well you're not, are you?" she added to him as he tried to give her a customer-assuring smile.

"... Not really."

"S'what I thought. C'mon c'mon c'mon, we got work tonight!" Kai urged, clapping her hands to urge her smols along, shooing them towards the counter.

'Hm, needa fix that,' Kai thought, noticing the wardrobe was a little wobbly as she put away her new hoodies, adding it to that mental list she didn't know she had. Then she glanced up as a voice came into her head.

_ Kid. _

_ Niobe, s'up? _

_ Gather your crew, get down to the club. Sun's down, time to get to work. _

_ Hup, _ Kai sent back, snapping her fingers and making an 'it's time' gesture to Weiss before heading for the coat rack.

_ Hyper - Spoiler _

The club wasn't particularly jumping as they emerged from the elevator into it, only a small handful of lingerie-clad male dancers out on the stages, and an only slightly larger handful of down-low pervs, some of them actually at the bar drinking, and one who even had food in front of him.

"Well hell, Niobe, this place come with room service now?" Kai quipped as she approached the throne-booth, stopping and grinning as she added, "Hey, Diore, good to see you."

"Hey," Diore replied, blushing a tiny bit since he was currently laying on his back across Niobe's lap, his shirt pushed up so she could run her fingertips lightly over his stomach, playfully swirling one around his bellybutton to make his mouse ears twitch.

_ C-cute, _ Yang (probably) accidentally sent, prompting Blake to smack her arm, though from the look on her face she was probably thinking the exact same thing.

Kai grinned, noticing that Team RWBY in general looked like they were having less of an issue with the Down Boy tonight, though she supposed that might be because it wasn't going full tilt yet. 

"Hey, it might if you kiss up to the cooks and waiters enough," Niobe replied with a snort, not stopping in toying with Diore's belly as she spoke. "Everyone, this is Diore, one of my top guys, can usually help you out with what you need someways. Anyway, I have work for you."

"What's the job?" Kai prompted, resting a hand on the pommel of her sword.

"This oughtta be good. Horace is asking me for some people to pull off a job he wants done."

"Horace. Asking you." A slender red eyebrow quirked.

Niobe smirked broadly. "Horace and I worked out our personal differences in the street as gangbangers should. We're cool now, if not exactly buddies. He's still a bit in the shithouse from all the crap he pulled during and after War Night, but he's apparently trying to learn to play nice. Probably doesn't hurt that the Demons are fucking his shit as hard as anybody's, and all the other gangs are playing in Tailtown and he needs to get the fuck along."

"So what's he want?"

"He wants to store some stolen merch in Tailtown until he's ready to sell it. Under the terms of use that I've got going right now, that means I get to offer up a crew to do the job, and he has to hire 'em unless they're blatantly unfit. Your crew's good shit, kid, so no troubles there. You pull this off, the creds from the theft job are 100% yours, I only take the storage fee. Your driving hasn't gone soft since the Morningstar job, has it?"

"It's been just under a month for me, Niobe. Yeah, I can handle it easy if it's a lift job."

"Not one lift. Six." Niobe gave her head a little bob to the side, grinning. "Horace wants six speeders lifted at once. S'why I thought of you and your crew. Can they all drive?"

Kai glanced at the others, most of whom were looking at Ruby and Weiss, who looked at each other. "Weeee might need to do some mission prep," Kai allowed wryly, looking back at Niobe. "I assume you've stocked Twitch's little clinic with jacks and an illegal skiller?"

"Fuckin' right I have. Okay, get your girls jacked up, skilled up, and get over to the Embargo, it's a smoke club on the edge of Tailtown... I made sure Horace knows he's on my turf so he's less likely to fuck around if he's still pissy about the Morningstar job. "

"Uh, why are we going to get 'jacked up'?" Ruby asked as they turned and headed back for the elevator.

"Because congrats Rubes, you're about to learn to drive."

"Now you'll f-feel a little pinch," Twitch said. "... And p-probably the right side of your face will go numb. For a f-few seconds."

"Wait seriousgllllk," Ruby muttered, the right side of her face actually sagging a little for a second as Twitch slid the little round device into the small incision she's made. Twitch made a slight turn and an adjustment with one of the microtools on her arms, and Ruby jerked just a little in place, before she blinked. "That feels suuuuper weird but also not."

"Y-you get u-used to it."

Weiss sighed as she moved to take Ruby's place in the chair. "Could you put mine on the left, please? I'm left-handed."

"S-sure."

"Hey, I'm left-handed too, y'know!" Ruby chirped. "No one asked me if I wanted mine on the left!"

"Ruby you use your right hand all the timmmmglllk," Weiss replied, eye twitching.

"Well  _ yeah _ okay I guess I'm kinda, y'know..." Ruby raised her hands to look at them, wiggling her fingers. "Ambisexual! ... Wait, no. ... I mean actually probably that too, but..."

"Wait what?" Ilia squeaked a bit, glancing over.

"So could someone explain why Ruby has what looks like an old stereo plug in her neck?" Yang asked with a frown as she leaned in to look at the little round circle, its center currently filled by a solid cover. 

"Because if we're gonna lift six cars at once, I need her to be able to drive it like it's stolen, 'cause it will be," Kai said, spotting the skiller and heading over to it.

"I'm... not a  _ great _ driver," Blake admitted. 

"Then you're in the seat next, cat."

Blake sighed wearily, nodding... then frowned, ears angling out to the sides a bit as she looked at Kai. "Don't say that, it's racist."

"Not here it's not. Adapt."

"... rzmfrzmhmn..."

" _ That's _ racist."

"What about Ilia, will she need one of those?" Yang asked, folding her arms.

"Ilia can already drive a little, but I'm uploading the advanced driving skillset to her via her psycomm right now, since she's a hub."

Yang blinked. "Wait so you can do it wirelessly if you have a hub implant?"

"You have a high-density data processor where one of your vertebrae used to be, Firebird, it's not that hard." Kai paused, then glanced over. "What'd you do with it, anyway?"

"Kept it, duh. They put it in a little thing of clear plastic or something for me, it's in the pocket of my old jacket."

"That'll be a delightful little find for the Atlesians if it takes us too long to get back. You want a skill or something while we wait for the other three to finish getting jacked up?"

"Huh. Sure, okay."

"Alright, let me find you and... there. Accept the permission prompt."

"What permission prom-" Yang blinked, getting a slightly disturbed expression on her face. "... I have a popup in my  _ brain _ , Kai."

"Just be glad they're shielded against commercial frequencies. Alright, let's see," Kai murmured, hitting checkboxes on three of the skills displayed on the current screen and hitting 'Upload'. "This should only take a second, you've got a good one."

"Whoa, okay, that's... wild." Yang blinked repeatedly. "I just... know stuff, and I also know that I know stuff. I suddenly know how to hack a bunch of electronic locks I never heard of, how to use C4, and-" Her expression flattened. "Why did you teach me muscle clenches for holding off a male orgasm?"

"Never know what'll come in handy."

"I  _ don't _ have a  _ dick _ !"

"The night is young, don't be a pessimist."

Once they'd gotten the other, actually necessary uploads done, the six headed back down and out. "Man, if we're gonna be here for awhile I hope I can get one of those bikes to keep," Yang said with a sigh. "Maybe fix it up real nice, get one of those cool helmets I saw in the store that has the even better display than these things," she adds, tapping her glasses.

"Oooo, ooo, I know how to ride a motorcycle too now!" Ruby chirped with a little hop. "I want one tooooo!"

'You'd almost think they were starting to get used to the idea of being here awhile,' Kai mused to herself with a grin.

It wasn't that long of a walk, though, and it was really only mildly dark, so it would help to kill a little time and let Night Creature Hours really begin. Everyone was slightly more relaxed about their badass walks than they were the first night, but most of the others on the sidewalks still seemed to get the hint to give them some space.

As they passed by a corner with a small group of women dressed not unlike Weiss, one leaned down to the window of a passing classy-looking people carrier, visibly grinning as she spoke briefly with the driver, then accepted a small sheaf of bills before opening the passenger door and slipping inside.

Weiss watched this little exchange, her brow furrowing... then eyes widening. Her eyes flitted down to herself, then over at the rest of the group. "Oh my  _ god _ ."

"Now, honey, you look  _ fantastic _ ," Kai said insistently, trying to sound casual and coming off a little desperate.

"Why! Didn't! You! Tell! Me!" Weiss snapped, slapping Kai's upper arm repeatedly.

" _ Because _ you look fantastic!"

"Honestly, Weiss, you do look pretty good," Yang interjected with a grin, tapping out another pink cigarette. "I mean, not to sound like I'm implying anything, but it does suit you."

"It... kind of does," Blake allowed. "Like, not like that, but it just... looks nice on you."

"... Oh fine," Weiss said with a huff. But then, sending to Kai directly,  _ You... you let me go around dressed like a hooker! _

_ Sorry, Snowbird, my pussy hijacked control of my brain the second I saw you in that. _

_... Mmf. W-well... I guess it's too late to stop and change clothes now anyway. _

'Heh. Tsundere-saved.'

The Embargo was a more upper-class sort of building in a slightly more kept-up part of Tailtown... not that much of Tailtown was exactly crumbling to ruins, but still, it was noticeable for a Makarzian sector. It was exclusive enough that the beefy wolf-headed man at the door was wearing a nicer suit than Kai could have afforded back on Remnant even if she hadn't spent most of her money on girl's day out. 

He stepped in front of the door as an obvious pack of non-suited night creatures approached, Kai drawing to a stop. "We're here to see Horace Allfather. He's expecting me."

The bouncer nodded, apparently taking that as enough proof and stepping back and aside, pushing one of the doors open.

This was a club wholly unlike the Down Boy... this was where high-end gangbanger men (and some women) came to act refined and talk about their prostitution rings and chem manufacturing operations as if they were legit corp business. The interior was mostly dark wood, some of it possibly even real, shiny brass fixtures, the light dim for ambience instead of to make drug deals and clandestine encounters in the corner less obvious. A place street punks didn't belong.

Kai didn't give a fuck. She strolled through it like it was the sidewalk, like she owned it. She led the most badass job crew on Makarzia. Fuck insecurity.

Even if there hadn't been a cluster of guys in red and black gathered around a table, it wasn't that big of a club and Horace was a very big dude, wearing a black suit and red shirt today instead of the inverse, a slightly small cigar in his mouth... ah, no, it was a pretty big one, he was just that large a dude. Though Kai couldn't help but grin just a little at what she saw as she came to a stop in front of his booth.

'Yup, they settled it in the street, alright.' "Hey, Horace, how's it going?"

"Kai! Welcome back!" the big man boomed, plucking the cigar from his lips with two fingers and waving his hand, light glinting off his multiple rings that would have probably been bracelets on Weiss... and off of the rune-engraved solid gold patch now resting, strapless, over his left eye. "It's been awhile!"

"Yeah, Horace, figured you wouldn't exactly be thrilled to see my face again, unless it was separate from me and on a plate in front of you," Kai replied drolly.

"It was a very stressful time. Mistakes were made." He tapped some ash from the cigar into the gold ashtray in front of him. Actual gold, not plastic. "Let us move past it. After all, it simply doesn't do for a father to embarrass his daughter when she has her friends over, hm?"

Kai's gaze cooled perceptibly. "Sorry, Horace. I found my father while I was out and about this time. So I'd appreciate it if you'd knock off that old bit," she said without hesitation.

"... Ah. Well then." It had to be her imagination that, for a split second, he'd looked sincerely disappointed. But it was gone so fast she was able to brush it off as just that, and the jovial expression was back. "This is your new crew, hm? They seem a tad... young, if you don't mind me saying."

"And doesn't this one get expensive, paying her by the hour?" one of Horace's men sneered, leaning in to leer at Weiss.

Weiss gave him a very cool look. Without looking down, she dipped a hand (her nails now painted a glowing white) into her coat pocket and produced the switchblade Kai had given her, flipping it open with a soft click.

"Ooooo, whatcha gonna do with that girly, stick meeEEEEE?!" he yelped, flailing a bit as he found himself lifting off the ground, then flying backwards to slam against the wall, a black glyph appearing and holding him pinned there like a butterfly in a sociopathic ten-year-old's collection.

Kai turned her own cool look from the pinned man to Horace. "Actually, let me go ahead and make introductions. Ilia Amitola, my sister. Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long, my cousins. Blake Belladonna, my close friend. And the  _ lady _ pinning your boy to the wall with her mind is Weiss Schnee. My girlfriend. So if any of your boys says anything uncouth again, I'm gonna have a problem with him."

"Mm." Horace puffed calmly on his cigar, though Kai had seen his eyes widen slightly when Weiss had first pulled her little stunt. "Kill him for his boorish behavior, if you like," he said agreeably after a moment. "If he can't behave like a gentleman in a gentleman's club, perhaps he's better off dead."

Kai made a show of looking over at the pinned man and thinking about it, his eyes widening behind his little red sunglasses, before she turned back to Horace. "I'll consider it an IOU for if he ever shows himself in front of me again," she said evenly as Weiss dispersed the glyph and let him drop to the floor.

"Certainly, feel free. As a further token of apology, here," he said, pushing a box on the table over to her. "Not your style, perhaps, but one can always learn to step it up a bit, hm?"

"My my, you're being awfully sweet today," Kai said as she collected the box, letting it settle against her hip held in one hand. "You really feel that bad about calling the cops on me?"

"As I said, mistakes were made. And from what I heard about your clearance of the motodrones on the Corridor, you have returned to Makarzia with quite a capable crew after all. I'd thought the stories exaggerated, fantastical tales brought on by glowdust and a few too many hishot beers, but it seems that they were not. Let's say... I think I'd like to keep your crew looking forward to working with me in the future, Miss Kai."

"Sterling."

"Hm?" Horace blinked once.

"Kai Sterling. If you're gonna 'miss' me," she added with a little snort, grinning.

Horace's smile looked weirdly sincere as he said, "Very well. Miss Sterling. Now, these cars I'd like you to retrieve. There is an individual in the 'legitimate' sector who has borrowed a substantial sum of money from me to fund his auto dealership. Rather than pay me back when he had a particularly good year, he has instead elected to sink his profits into buying six high-end groundspeeders... of course, nothing so delectable as the one you lifted from me, but still. This insults me. I wish to punish this man in a method that is not so crude as merely having him beaten for his sins."

"So you steal the cars, sell them, get the money you loaned him, but he still actually owes it to you," Kai said with a bit of a smirk of her own. 

"Delightful, isn't it?" Horace said with a chuckle. "I knew you would appreciate it. The address of the dealership and the name of the car, though I don't doubt you will be able to recognize them," he added, flipping up a business card and proffering it.

"Since it'll be the highest-end groundspeeder in the place and there'll be six of 'em? Yeah, think I can manage," Kai said wryly. "We'll get it done."

"I have every confidence. And I hope with the successful completion of this mission, we can consider the bad blood between us at an end."

* * *

"Y'know. I just can't get it out of my head.

"Did he really look disappointed? And if he did, what was it? Just at the loss of one of the little games he liked to play? At the potential to manipulate me he'd always held over my head? The idea of pulling me in and turning me into his creature forever?

"Or... and here's the really weird fucking one that I  _ just can't quite escape _ ...

"What if Horace Allfather actually wanted a daughter?

"What if he wanted a red-haired, red-eyed night creature that was able to keep up with his plots and schemes and wasn't actually intimidated by him? Horace was notoriously security conscious, no one knew where he lived, but I somehow doubted there was a wife, kids, and dog waiting for him there.

"What if Horace had called himself my father all those times not because he wanted me to believe it was true, but because he wanted to believe it himself?

"... Naaaaaah! Heh, dick."

* * *

"I'm guessing he's not usually that warm and fuzzy?" Yang commented dryly, before giving a soft 'ooo' as Kai opened the box to show it was full of slightly pale, slender cigarillos.

Kai took out a pair of the cigarillos, eyeing and then pocketing them. "Amiable, sure, but he must be trying hard to get out of the doghouse, and like he said my crew is now full of people with superpowers. Speaking of which, if you would, honey, hold these for a second," she continued, passing the box to Weiss before giving a few light squeezes around her elbow and palm. Then she grabbed the edge of the encasement above her elbow and peeled it down and off, holding up her unmarked palm and flexing her fingers a few times. "Superpowers do indeed fucking rock."

"That's just fucking unfair," Yang said a little flatly... then instantly perked up as Kai took the box of cigarillos back from Weiss and passed it to her instead. "But I forgive you."

"How did you get hooked on smoking  _ so fast _ ?" Blake demanded with a frown, her ears laying down somewhat.

"I come from a long line of addictive personalities. Drinking, puns, leaving..."

"Alright, according to this we are looking for a..." Kai flipped the card over and eyed the small, meticulously-lettered word. "'Vulfen HPK'. Like I said, should be pretty obvious which ones they are." Flipping the card back over to eye the address, she snorted. "This is halfway across the sector. We're gonna need to steal a car to take us to where we're stealing a car."

"Must we always go  _ right _ to stealing?" Blake said with a sigh... then got a flat expression when everyone turned to look at her. "Oh sure, give the former terrorist funny looks for not endorsing casual theft."

In sensitivity to any moral considerations, Kai did not drive the stolen people carrier van like it was stolen, and left it locked and in a fairly well-lit spot so that it had a decent chance of being returned to its owner. It was a nice part of town, entirely daytimer territory, so the only people about were some of the very mild lifestyler night creatures, most of them safely ensconced in caffhouses.

Kai led the way around to the back of the dealership, giving it a wide berth on approach, and finally approaching the back door. She took in the position of the camera, then nodded. "Rainbow, you're up."

Ilia grinned and nodded, crouching low and then matching herself to the pavement color, the camocloth she was wearing doing the same. She crept forward slowly, giving herself time to adjust to any shifts in pattern, easing herself past the lights and cameras and up to the door. Raising up just as slowly, she spent a few moments hacking the lockpad... must not have been a particularly good one since that wasn't Ilia's specialty but the door popped open a few moments later. She slipped inside, moving the door as little as possible. A few seconds later the lights went out and the lights on the cameras blinked off.

"Good job," Kai called into the darkened dealership as she strolled in followed by the others. The display area was directly ahead, and almost the moment she stepped out of the back hallway she saw what almost had to be the Vulfen, a sleek little red thing with a narrow two seater body. The wheel wells extended out to the sides, the whole thing fairly short and angular, the front narrow and pointed, indeed vaguely resembling a wolf's head, or maybe a snake, with narrow, angular quad headlights set right into the front grill. Its paint job was a rich cherry red that gleamed even in the little light coming from outside the single large display window still open beyond it.

"Nice," she murmured, eyeing it.

_ Uppermost - The Core _

"Uh, guys?" Ilia called, flipping the switches to turn on the showroom lights, apparently deciding subtlety time was over.

Kai turned towards the rest of the showroom... and a grin of incredulous delight spread across her face. "Oh you have to to be shitting me." 

Arrayed in a neat little row behind the red Vulfen was a white one. And a yellow one. And a black one. And, directly in front of the currently shuttered front doors of the showroom, a holochromatic one.

And, positioned directly on what was probably a revolving turntable when it was powered, in the 3/4 circle of the main display window, was one in mirrored chrome.

Yang actually laughed in delight as she headed for the yellow car, turning to catch the keys as Ilia tossed them from the newly lockpicked main desk. "Hell, you think Horace will let us keep them just due to the complete cosmic perfection of it?"

"Don't count on him being that generous," Kai replied with a snort, walking backwards briefly and clapping her hands to prompt Ilia to toss her the mirrored Vulfen's keyfob. "But who knows, maybe if you're very, very,  _ very _ good Niobe will buy them for us for Dragontide."

"Ohmygosh I know stealing is wrong but driving this is gonna be so much fuuuuun," Ruby squealed as she hauled open the door and slid in. "... Aw yis I had to move the seat back a little from being all the way up!"

"Oh shut up," Weiss grumbled, slamming the door of the white car.

_ Wouldn't it be really stupid to leave Dust, or whatever you use here, in them? _ Blake sent, already in the black car and examining the controls.

Kai smirked as she slid the keyfob into its slot in the panel, seeing lights glow to life across the panel and the center panel turn on, tapping the ignition button and hearing the engine thrum to life with a sound not unlike that of the powerup sequence of the mag-accel pistol that had become part of Red Legacy.  _ They're electric. _

_ Okay, so we have the cars, _ Weiss sent.  _ But with the shutters down, how exactly do we get them out? _

Kai glanced at the other cars. Then at the sole unshuttered window, the long curved display one left open even at night to show off the mirrored Vulpen she was currently sitting in.

She smirked.

_ Pendulum - Slam (1:05 mark) _

The mirrored car smashed through the display window at speed, the brief pass over the swirling white glyph circle bridging the gap between its pedestal and the lip of the window granting it speed, hitting the pavement at an angle and banking hard in a turn, roaring off down the pavement just as its glistening red sibling almost launched out through the window behind it at a higher angle, Ruby Rose's howl of "WooooooHOO!" briefly filling the nighttime street as her car hit the sidewalk and zipped aside barely in time to avoid hitting a coffee shop, several of the glowhipsters inside flinging their coffee through the air in terror.

Each glyph-launched car made its own landing and correction, zipping down the almost vehicle-deserted streets, quad headlights glaring in a retina-searing ultrawhite seemingly chosen purely for its ability to be a dick to anyone driving a less expensive vehicle. They took up a loose formation, the red car behind the leading mirrored chrome one weaving back and forth seemingly from sheer delight until the white one pulled up beside it, apparently just to ruin its fun.

_ Are we having fun yet? _ Kai sent to her crew, a gleam in her wicked red eyes and a smirk on her face, drum and bass blaring from her radio at max volume, the car thumping along steadily and announcing its coming well ahead of even its impressive speed.

_ Aw yis yis yis, _ Yang sent back, a wide grin on her lips, lit cigarillo clamped firmly between her teeth, the city's lights flitting past reflected in her sunglasses.  _ I could get used to this larcenous shit, yes sah! _

_ I lodge a token protest before saying oh my  _ **_Dust_ ** _ is this car fun to drive! _ Blake added in, yellow eyes glistening a bit wickedly for her own part.  _ I really  _ **_get_ ** _ what they mean by "drive it like it's stolen" now! _

Kai let a vocal and mental laugh carry through the thump and wail of her music as she twisted her car into a drift around a corner, the others behind her following suit in a loosely coordinated convoy of gleaming groundspeeders, neon and low-white flashing across the finishes of the stolen vehicles as they whipped along streets. An oncoming salary drone, going home late, screamed at the sight of both lanes filled by oncoming high-speed superspeeders, only to watch as they all immediately snapped into a single lane and whipped past him, leaving him frazzled and staring into his rear-view monitor... until he wound up slamming into a parked car.

"That's on you, my friend," Kai snorted at the sight in her own side-view monitor, accessing the car's system with her psycomm and instead linking the Vulfen's in-dash monitors together, bringing up a split-screen view of her crew's faces. "Alright, as much fun as it would be to cruise the streets in these beauties for, oh, a day or two, let's get back to Tailtown."

Ilia's eyes flickered with datalines before she glanced briefly over her shoulder. "We've got lawenoff incoming."

"Shit, regular or high-end?"

"Regular, but they've got newer cruisers, they might keep up with us if-" She 'tch'ed as a pair of blue and whites, sirens blaring and lights flashing, almost overshot past the intersection they'd just gone through, not quite managing to drift but still course-correcting and setting in after them. "Wow, not bad for sixhours."

"Split up?" Blake suggested, flicking her eyes to the rearview monitor. "There's only two of them, they can't keep up with all of us."

"Nah, we split up it gets way too easy to pen us in and too hard for the Geneslicers to give us good routes." Kai danced her fingers over the center panel, tweaking the engine's power ratios a little and mentally sending out her modifications to the others. "This guys are sixhours, we keep out of reach for a couple of minutes they'll give up, they can report it as giving a good try and get a pat on the head from their boss."

Again Ilia's eyes flickered, and this time she winced. "Okay, that may be tough. Now we've got incoming Demons."

"Shit," Kai hissed, checking her mirrors but seeing nothing. "They coming up behind the cops?"

"Ayup."

"Fuuuuuck okay guys guess what now instead of outrunning these guys we've gotta save their miserable lives," Kai grumbled without looking at the screen as she turned her car in another drift around a corner, this time deliberately heading for wider streets. "Because Street Demons do not obey rule one."

"Whaaaat I thought that was the most important ruuuule!" Ruby wailed. "What happened to the supercops jamming themselves up people who do that's buuuutts?!"

"If they can find them and the Demons are apparently reeeeeally good at hiding," Ilia grumped. "They're getting closer too."

"Okay guys, I'm gonna try something, fan out and then make room for me to drop back," Kai instructed.

The other five cars moved into a wing formation, the center gradually slowing back and then swinging out the sides, allowing Kai to suddenly brake and whip her car into a 180, rushing right towards the lawenoff cruisers, which quickly jerked to the sides, allowing her through the center, only for her to throw it into reverse and quickly catch back up to them, her driver's side window drawing even with one cruiser's. Lowering her own window with a thought, Kai made a few polite 'window down button' motions even while driving backwards at high speed, the rather stunned police officer actually retracting his own window.

"My dude," Kai called calmly over the rush of the wind and the blare of her music, laying her arm along the window. "I know we're very attention-grabbing. But have you maybe noticed  _ them _ ?" she prompted, flicking a finger the direction she was facing.

The cop looked over his shoulder... and very quickly saw the half dozen street-armored toughs in horned helmets on speedercycles, as well as the heavy twin-engined car alight with neon yellow-green paint and actual neon rimming and underlighting, a pair of massive draconic horns rising from its hood and angled forward.

Both lawenoffs immediately yanked their wheels, peeling off down the first just-barely-available side streets on either side.

"Thought not." Kai hurled her Vulfen into a spin again and threw it back into forward gear, catching back up with her crew, mentally instructing them to take a wedge shape ahead of her. "Alright, these Demons are fast but not as fast as these babies, if we can outrun them until we get to the Corridor, we open these puppies up and watch them vanish in the rearview."

"The Corridor's not too far ahead," Ilia agreed. "Just gotta pass through Officeville and... uh-ohhhhhh," she muttered as datalines flickered across her eyes.

"Why is only bad news tonight, Rainbow?"

"When is it ever good news on Makarzia?!"

"Point, hit me."

"The lawenoff have set up roadblocks all through Officeville, they've blocked our routes to the Corridor. There's enough of 'em I think they could handle the Demons but they'll  _ definitely _ settle us."

"I don't want to go to jail! ... Again!" Ruby squeaked. "... Wow Dad actually is going to kill you, Yang."

"Fuck."

"... 31st and 3rd." Kai's grin grew particularly wolfish, red eyes sparkling in the aftermath of datalines as she repeated, "31st and 3rd, Ilia lead us there, the street beside the rental office park building that's a whole damn block wide."

"How's that help us?" Weiss asked with a confused near-pout.

"Because, honey, you told me you can cast your glyphs through anything that's pure enough metal." Kai reentered a fresh new power setting for her engine and shared it, smirking. "And according to the user manual, even though these things are mostly carbon fiber the drive shaft and axles are pure asteroid-farmed steel, and the parking brake next to you has a series of steel controls that lead right into them."

The lawenoff barricading the 31st and 3rd intersection lowered their guns at the oncoming speeders, barking out commands over the loudspeaker to stop or they'd open fire. However, a number blanched at the fact that the stolen vehicles didn't even seem to be slowing down, instead the glittering rainbow-hued one in the lead dropping back to let the white car take the front position, all of them falling into a single file, the distant glow of the Street Demons illuminating the night behind them.

"They're crazy, we did a double cement barricade!" one officer yelped, just before scrambling over and behind said barricade at the sight of the gleaming white speeder bearing down at him.

A mere twenty feet ahead of the barricade, a large swirling white circle filled with glittering snowflake emblems appeared at an angle, the lead car hitting it and being sent hurling into the air, the rainbow car directly behind it doing the same, followed by the red. By the time the yellow car was being launched airborne, a series of black circles had appeared on the side of the massive mirror-windowed building, the car's tires thumping against the first without so much as cracking the glass, catching traction near-instantly and zipping off down the vertical surface, the cars in its wake similarly landing from their twisted launch and following precisely behind in a neat little row, mirror-coated cars passing along the mirror-shined building, cops left staring with limp jaws and wide eyes.

Right up until the roar of engines sent them scattering, the similarly awed Street Demons having forgotten about the little issue of the cement barricades, speedercycle riders sent flying, the horned car's grill slamming into the cement and smashing it, the whole vehicle lifting up and over to crash down on its top, undercarriage pointed at the sky.

Weiss's car soared off the end of the building, a fresh series of white glyphs appearing in front to lead it and the others following after her passing through the same tube, Ruby's squealing laugh of absolute delight overlaid with Yang's whooping, even Blake giving an excited "YEAH!" as her car's tires slammed down on pavement again, Kai's crew once more settling into a light 'flying V' formation, letting her come up to the head of it as she led the way onto the long bridge heading back to Tailtown.

"And I think we can call  _ that _ one absolutely perfect, Snowbird," Kai asserted with a glance at the dash screen, grinning broadly. "Let's get these in the warehouse and get back to the Down Boy. The night is young and so are we, we ain't ready to turn in and nap yet."


	6. The Chemical Heist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After successfully stealing six supercars, Kai, Ilia, and Team RWBY are nowhere near done for the night. Niobe has a "tonight or never" job for them from the still-strange combination of Adam, leader of the Freedroids, and Moore, leader of the Transcendants. Whatever a digital consciousness and a drug spiritualist need a chemical for, Kai's crew is being hired to provide it. 
> 
> Unfortunately, they've really gotten the Street Demons' attention, and a simple B&E and warehouse robbery turns into an epic battle against an eighteen wheeler from Hell.

February 25, 2993, 23:33 (Local Makarzia time)

_ Neon Vox - Arrival _

Kai led her crew back into the Down Boy, which by now was jumping decently, once more full of masked and hooded down-low pervs staring intently at the numerous swaying and gyrating dancers, the lights flashing and pulsing to the beat, video screens playing over this or that dancer, or this or that part of them.

She noticed that the blushes and awe had considerably ramped down from before... Team RWBY still seemed a bit overwhelmed by the place, but not like they could have been knocked over by a soft puff of air. She led the way towards Niobe's throne, but saw that it was empty. Then a piercing whistle pulled her attention off to the side of it.

Niobe was sitting on the edge of the round table of the large superbooth directly to one side of the bar. The ¾ circle booth was padded in red, the table of decent size to hold a large assortment of food and drinks without necessitating shouting across it, and it was directly beside the bar and right in line with the main stage, as well as straight-on to most of the video screens. In other words, probably the best table in the house, Kai thought with an appraising eye as she led the others over to it.

"My child!" Niobe called happily over the music, and though from her tone it was just a simple term of affection, Kai couldn't help but feel her heart go a little fluttery. "You are back in record time from a six-car job, my child, all of you are here, all of the cars are in the warehouse, Horace's money is even in our accounts. And," she declared as she hopped down to her feet and rose to her full height, grinning as she waggled a finger in the air. "I heard you drove on  _ the side of a fucking building _ ."

"You heard right," Kai said with a grin, drawing Weiss forward a bit and draping an arm around her shoulders. "My Snowbird is a lady of many amazing talents, Niobe," she added, Weiss actually ducking her head a little bashfully. "Is Horace happy?"

"Horace is over the fucking moon. The only way you could have made the job better for him than just getting him the cars is if you made it showy, and you made it  _ impossibly _ showy!" Niobe declared with a laugh. "He is trying to buy me off to use your crew exclusively, and I'm having none of it! Until you're all ready to go back to Remnant, you are now officially my top earners. And that," she said, stepping back and gesturing to the superbooth. "Comes with privileges!"

Kai stepped forward a bit... and found herself grinning so wide her cheeks hurt a little at the sight of the crowned lion emblazoned on the tabletop, burned into the wood and then sealed, the exact same logo that adorned the back of her jacket.

"Your crew?" Niobe continued, pointing at the group, then shaking her finger again. "They don't pay to eat or drink in here. This table? It's  _ yours _ ," she added, pointing at Kai. "As long as you're here. Now, I've got another job for you, but first! Sit your asses down! Have something to eat, something to drink! And show yourselves off in my  _ fuckin' _ club!" she added with a laugh as she turned to walk off.

"Our very own sex club booth," Blake said drolly as she slid inside and around to the back, though Kai noticed her ears lifted a bit. The interior of the booth, by its design with high risings around it, reduced the volume of the club to far quieter levels, making it easier to talk... and less likely to be overheard. 

Kai let Yang slide in on Blake's right and Ilia on her left before slipping in beside Ilia, Weiss settling on her other side as Ruby settled on Yang's. "You don't get what an honor this is," she told Blake. "This is one of Niobe's most profitable tables. Probably the most desirable table in the house. Making it exclusive to us is a big deal. Yeah she's probably hoping to bring in a fresh new demographic to the club besides down-low pervs by showing us off, but this is a big deal, Blake."

"This is like being asked to sit at the teacher's table or something," Yang added, tapping out one of her strawberry cigarettes and tucking it between her lips... and then holding the pack out of Ruby's grasp as her sister made several grabs for it. She lit and inhaled, then grinned as she puffed out a cloud of slightly sweet smoke. "Just, y'know, more sexy dancing bois."

"God, let's not think of  _ that _ at the Beacon teacher's table," Weiss said with a snort, before bobbing her head. "I think I get it, though. It's not just Niobe's way of rewarding us, it's her way of claiming us, isn't it?"

"Mmhmmmm." Kai lit her own cig off of the built-in plasma lighter of the hardpack she'd bought that afternoon, letting out a plume of smoke as she tucked it back into her pocket. "Niobe knows full well I'm not going to work for anyone else... she's my fuckin' mom, this is the family business," the redhead continued, giving Ilia's shoulders a little squeeze as she grinned. "But most of the other gangheads aren't gonna understand that. So she's making a show of keeping me, us, by giving us privileges. The better she treats us, the more desirable we're gonna seem to the other gangs, from the major ones to all the scattered little guys. The more desirable we are, the more she can charge for our work."

"I guess that gets us back to Remnant faster," Blake allowed... though Kai noticed her ears perk significantly at the plate of fresh fried chips and salsa and plate of onion rings the waiter set down.

"Water and a strawberry vodka shot all around," Kai told the waiter, leaning up and raising her voice since he was outside of the booth. "And hit us up with burgers and fries but make one of 'em a salmon burger." At Blake's dubious look, the red-eyed woman assured her, "It's probably fake salmon but it's worth eating if it's here, Niobe likes fish too."

"And the drink choice?" Weiss prompted.

"Water 'cause we're working, shots 'cause it's damn rude not to order drinks in a club even if you're not paying," Kai told her with a grin, bobbing her head to the music and taking another drag of her cigarette.

The glasses were clean, and the water was clear enough it had probably been double-filtered... Kai had to admit Niobe ran a tight damn ship, especially considering the Down Boy had to be a place no one would have expected the former let alone the latter. Kai picked up her shot glass and raised it, the others doing the same with varying amounts of ease and awkwardness. "To a hell of a job, and a hell of a crew. We may only be here for a few months but we are going to make Makarzia ours while we're here."

"Skol," Ilia announced before knocking back her shot, coughing a little in the wake of it. At Kai's amused look, she shrugged. "I heard a Slicer say it once, it sounds cool."

"Whew! Now that is  _ not bad _ !" Yang declared happily, eyeing her empty shot glass.

"Figured that one would twig your berries, Firebird," Kai chuckled. "Just the one until you figure out your tolerance for Makarzian alcohol, okay?"

Weiss had coughed a little in the aftermath of her shot, and eyed it for a moment, before shrugging and setting it down, sipping her water. "My Aura's a little low after pulling off those glyphs," she confided to Kai. "If we're going to do another job I hope I don't have to use too many of them."

"S'fine, Snowbird, we'll work it," Kai assured her, before snapping her head back forward and scowling. "Goddammit Ruby you eat the last onion ring and I will cap your ass."

"Awww!"

Niobe returned about the time they were finishing their burgers, sliding into the booth beside Ruby and giving the silver-eyed woman's punked hair a ruffle almost absently. "This one's a joint job from Moore and Adam," she said, voice a little more serious than before.

Blake almost choked on a fry. "W-who?!"

"Adam, leader of the Freedroids," Kai explained, giving Blake a wry look. "It's just the same name, don't sweat it." Then she looked back at Niobe, frowning thoughtfully. "Those two together again? What the hell's the connection?"

"I don't know. Cammy does, but she won't tell me."

Kai nodded once, putting the matter out of her mind immediately. If Cammy wasn't telling Niobe something, that meant it absolutely needed to stay as secret as possible.

"They seem a little desperate on this one, kid," Niobe continued. "They stressed that it was a 'tonight or never' matter. I actually had another job lined up for you but I bumped it for this one... we owe both of them, it's time to step up and get it done for 'em."

"Consider it done. What's the job?"

"Apparently one of the suppliers Moore uses for a particular mixture has clammed up on her... outright refusing to sell this particular ingredient on Makarzia anymore. Which means that they're about to ship their remaining stock off-planet. Moore wants it... all of it. You get that chemical for her, it is a big fat payday. I'll take a little off the top for my finder's fee cut, the rest of it's yours."

"Where do the Freedroids come in?"

"They're taking delivery. Remember that big comm-and-galanet complex in central Tailtown that the corp pulled out of a few years ago? Well I bought it, and then Adam bought it from me, it's the new Freedroid home base. Take the stuff there once you get it, the Freedroids are providing a truck," she added, sliding a keyfob across the table. "It'll autodrive to you but you'll have to drive it back."

Kai picked up the keyfob, eyed it, then nodded and stuck it in a pocket. "Do they know where the stuff is?"

"No, you're gonna hafta break into the corp office and find that for yourself." Niobe lifted a business card and then leaned forward to pass it, massive breasts flattening against the table slightly. "Luckily it's not one of the big ones, just some little pissant branch corp."

"It'd have to be if we wanted this done tonight." Kai regarded the address on the card, nodding. The edge of Corpton, not one of the monoliths, that was doable easily enough.

"You got a hacker?" Niobe asked.

"Not the one I'd like," Kai admitted, thinking of Reese and imagining how much she'd have adored Makarzia. She swallowed the intense feeling of homesickness that welled in her for a moment, not for Remnant, but for her Sparrow, for Grey, Team JNPR. ... Others. Still, she kept it off her face and slipped the card into a pocket too. "We'll hit up the skiller before we go, give Ruby and Ilia the basic hacking package, unless this place has security waaaay beyond their address we should be able to manage."

"Even if you can't manage the computers, look around. If there's anything Cammy and I both know from our time in, the paperless office is a myth, even in the fuckin' future," Niobe chuckled. "The name of the stuff is written on the back of the card. Now! I have one more gift for you waiting outside, should make these jobs a lot smoother, but don't go expecting any other cool presents until Dragontide, y'hear?" she added, eyes twinkling.

Once Ruby and Ilia had been given an electronic crash course in basic hacking, the crew exited the club... where Kai once again found herself grinning at what was waiting on the sidewalk outside, Buzz grinning back at her from where he was standing guard over them.

"Well it's no Vulfen pack but it'll sure keep us from needing to boost people carriers to get around," Kai declared happily as she strolled towards the six speedercycles waiting in the street.

"Oh baby I am gonna mod the  _ shit _ out of you!" Yang declared happily as she swung astride the gold chrome cycle, tucking her sunglasses into a pocket and brushing back her hair before pulling on the matching helmet... then thrusting her fists in the air. "Yes! It's one of the cool ones!"

Kai smirked as she swung astride the silver chrome one in the lead, pulling on the helmet and waiting for the HUD to boot up. "We online, everybody?" she asked, watching names start to appear in a list in the left hand corner of her vision.

"Good here," Ilia replied from atop her new bike, the finish white but with a pearlescent gleam of rainbow colors to it, the line below her name on Kai's hud flickering oscilloscope style with the words.

"Online over here, oooo when I shift my eyes it knows I want the rearview of the bike, I knew these helmets would be awesome!"

"Good here!" Ruby chirped with a flicker of her oscilloscope.

"... Oh there's the channel," Blake added, her name finally appearing in the list as she found the linkup using her jacket's built-in helmet. "Yes, I'm with all of you now."

"I'm on too."

"Okay, guys, pulling up GPS coords now and linking them," Kai said as she tapped at the monitor screen above the battery compartment in front of her. "Follow me not them, though, I'm gonna be leading us down a lot of back streets since the lawenoff is probably still all riled up around Officeville. Try not to stand out any more than a pack of night creatures on very pretty speedercycles does already," she added before opening the throttle and taking off.

"Is that what we are now? 'Night creatures'?" Blake said after a minute as they approached the Corridor, her voice carrying a faint amused tone.

"There's actually a lot of names for 'em..." Kai admitted. "Nighttimers, the dark crowd, stuff like that. But I always liked 'night creatures' the best. It's kinda... scary and poetic at once."

"Mm. I actually kind of agree, I don't think I mind that," Blake said, before singing softly, " _ From sha~dow~s... _ "

Kai's heart seized a little as Weiss's bike wobbled suddenly, but she almost instantly got it under control. "I  _ knew _ that was you on that viral protest song!"

"A duet with Adam isn't exactly something I'm eager to brag about these days," Blake replied, though her tone was more wry than ashamed. 

"Yeah, well...  _ we're _ doing a duet sometime!" Weiss huffed, Blake laughing agreeably.

'My night creatures,' Kai thought warmly, eyes twinkling beneath the visor of her helmet.

"So this Moore, she's the head of those 'Transcendants', right? The drug spiritualists?" Yang spoke up as they started heading across the Corridor proper. "Sooooo you're saying we're stealing chemicals to give to a bunch of drug dealers?"

"The Transcendants don't push, Firebird, they only offer to those who approach them. And I'm not sure if even that's what's going on with this one."

"The Freedroids, they're like Penny, right?" Ruby asked, navigating her bike to pull up alongside Kai as she did, her poncho-drape flapping behind her with the speed. "Like machines, but they're people? But what do machines want with stuff to make drugs?"

"Damned if I know. I think we ought to just let that be their business, and if anyone's oogy about getting components for Moore, content themselves knowing this stuff probably isn't going in anyone's veins."

"The network says Officeville is still kind of swarming," Ilia spoke up as they hit the halfway point. "They suggest swinging right off of the Corridor and hug the edge of Parkalot to go around. More road distance but less time."

"Good call, Rainbow, let's do it."

"'Officeville', 'Corpton', 'Tailtown', 'Parkalot', they sure do have interesting names here," Weiss noted dryly.

"Yeah, the subsectors and zones have shitty alphanumeric names everyone gets tired of even worse than the streets, so people tend to just make up names for what they kinda are," Kai explained. "Officeville's where a bunch of buildings that rent out office space to companies are, for the most part, your salary drone farms. Corpton is off to the side of it, basically the same, just a lot more dedicated corporate office buildings. 

"Parkalot's what we call the sort of 'green buffer' they installed between those two and some upscale apartment buildings, giving the illusion to those who can afford it that they're not on fuckin' Makarzia, I guess," she continued, banking to the right as she came off the Corridor and curving around streets, pleased with how closely everyone else followed the maneuver, only little bits of hesitation and catch-up in the pack.

"The finest presswood and plastic trees that a minimum amount of money could buy," Ilia commented dryly as they turned left and began rushing a long straight stretch, trees and bushes that kind of almost didn't look super fake zipping by at twenty feet away and a hundred speedunits an hour.

"You'll get to see a lot more of the sector in your time here, I imagine. The Kuzahood is almost certainly in our cards in the future, assuming Sakai has gotten as desperate as the others and has decided to forgive me like Horace has."

As they pulled up to the street of the building, it started to rain, hoods quickly coming up out of jackets... every jacket on Makarzia had a rain hood, not because it was required, but because no one would buy one that didn't.

"It  _ stinks _ ," Weiss hissed as the group made its way along the sidewalk and towards the side alley.

"You get used to it," Kai declared breezily, leaning around the corner and eyeing the security cameras... both of which had dents in them, and red lights that were clearly just stuck-on LEDs to make up for the fact that they were broken. Heh.

"You get used to the rain smelling like chemicals and..." Yang sniffed, shuddered a little. "Unwashed underwear?"

"If you understand that 'get used to' means 'just expect it' instead of 'it doesn't stink anymore' then yes," Kai answered as she leaned down to examine the electronic keypad and card reader. "Rainbow, I'm gonna hafta open this up, you got those tools?"

"Hup," Ilia answered, reaching back to unzip the pack built into the lower back of her bodysuit, sliding out a wallet-like container and tossing it over.

"A-thankyou." Kai pulled out the plasma cutter stick and opened up part of the side panel that had been factory sealed with plastic. Then she slid in a few clips on wires and attached them, and ran another wire between those two. Finally, she tapped in the factory default code... and grinned as the door popped open slightly. "Always set the panel recessed, boys," she murmured to the poor bastards she was about to rob.

Whatever misgivings Team RWBY had about breaking and entering were apparently overcome by the desire to get out of the rain, everyone hurrying into the stretch of hallway. Kai immediately brushed them back to stay near the entryway, spotting a fixed location camera on a swivel. Edging into its blind spot, she scooted forward carefully to peer around the hallway before edging back.

"They must've skimped on buying good cameras to buy a lot of them, they're all over the damn place." Kai rolled her shoulders. "Lawenoff probably won't do anything if the company can't furnish them a clear picture of our faces, but with the amount of cameras someone'd get lit up eventually."

"So what do we do? Hack the system? Send Ilia?" Blake queried.

"Nah, Ilia would have to go slow to keep stealthed properly, I don't want anyone on their own for that long in here since we don't know if or how many guards there are." She glanced around. "And looks like they were at least smart enough not to put any real system access outside of their cameras."

The redhead considered... then grinned. "Hey. Ruby. Go fast."

"Huh?" Ruby blinked a few times... then grinned as well. "Ohhhh! Got it!"

Crouching, the silver-eyed woman rolled her shoulders, then launched herself forward, everyone's hair and jackets rustling as she took off already pushing her Semblance, showering rose petals in her wake. The cameras yanked hard on their swivels, pulled by Ruby's backwash, catching nothing but a sudden flutter of red cloth.

Smirking, Kai pulled one of her pocketknives and flicked it open, heading down one side of the hallway and hopping up to cut the camera cables, Blake extending her switchninjato and doing the same on the other side, unprompted.

It took them a few minutes to head up two floors with the simple number of cameras they had to cut, but Ruby had pulled them all the opposite direction so it was no real trouble. They found her on the third floor, face and hands pressed to a glass door as she peered in, pointing at the interior once they approached. "Data entry!"

Kai stepped up to the keycard pad, examining it for a moment before taking out her new Makarzian comm. Yanking the pad off the wall, she clipped on a cable and plug adapter to one of the cables inside, plugged it into her comm, and spent a few moments rearranging code blocks before the light on the dangling panel turned green.

"Admins usually sit on the end, get on it," Kai said with a snap of the fingers and a point to the desks on the close end of the rows of monitors, Ruby Semblancing into the nearer one and Ilia trotting over to the further. "Rubes, search the deebee and find our stuff, Ilia cover her tracks and set the system up to crash. Blake, go scout the floors and see if there's any of that security. Yang, you and me are on hardcopy search, Snowbird stand watch."

"Looks like the password system is pretty secure, it might take some time to get into it," Ilia said with a frown as her first few attempts met with 'Denied' replies.

Ruby snorted softly from where she was already typing away. "It doesn't matter how secure the system is if they can't remember their passwords. Mine was written in pencil under the keyboard, check the desk."

Ilia blinked, lifting her keyboard and peeking under it, then eyeing the edges of the monitor, before opening up the desk's sole drawer. "Aaaand written on the top sticky note. Thanks Rubes," Ilia added distractedly before logging in.

"Whoever came up the weekly-changing sixteen digit password with mixed caps and special characters was truly a boon to us larcenous types," Kai said dryly from where she was searching the overseer's desk in the corner.

Yang had moved to search the supply cabinet and its drawers, giving a soft "Bingo" as she found a thick plastic file keeper, unwinding the clip and opening it, starting to rifle through the pages inside. Spotting what looked like a familiar word, she pulled out the stapled-together papers. "Hey, I think I found something, this is about that stuff we're here to look for, mononitruh... ooks..."

"Mononitrooxysol," Kai both clarified and confirmed, walking over.

"Yeah, it doesn't look like it says where it is, but this looks like why they're stopping selling it on Makarzia," Yang said after tossing the folder back into the drawer and a further skim over the front page, then proffering the sheaf of papers to Kai. "Apparently it's part of some exclusivity deal with a company called 'Northstar Global Robotics'. ... More machines needing chemicals?"

"Maybe. I think there's our connection with the Freedroids... NGR is a big time droid producer," Kai said after a quick skim herself, glancing briefly at Weiss before pulling out her comm and starting to take pictures of each page. "Imagine the SDC being run by Weiss's dad, if some Dust could talk and had opinions about how it was used. You might get a pretty good idea of what NGR thinks of the Freedroids."

"Lovely," Weiss said flatly.

"Whatever Moore does with this stuff, the Freedroids obviously need it, and NGR doesn't want them to have it," Kai said as she tossed the paper back into the drawer atop its file folder. "Oh, hey, another interesting note," she added as she reached down to pluck up something else from the drawer, flipping open her knife. "Did you know the toner these companies use to make their hardcopies is incredibly flammable?" 

Yang quirked an eyebrow as Kai jabbed one side of the wide cartridge and began pouring the almost liquid powder into the open drawer. "Someone's feeling wrathful.'

"Let's just say I have a low opinion of organizations that conspire to keep sentients in unwilling servitude and call it good at that. Rainbow, while you're crashing the system, make sure the fire suppression system goes down first, huh?"

"Already done."

Weiss pursed her lips as Yang and Kai moved back over to where she was standing, the little bit of ache in her eyes showing just how what Kai had said had affected her... then she huffed and rolled her eyes. "You know, if I'm just going to stand here in the smoke anyway, you may as well give me one of those."

"Yeah?" Kai grinned, tilting her hardpack towards her lover.

"Ew, no, one of Yang's, if I'm going to try it I want it to taste like something."

While Weiss was coughing her way through her first cigarette, Kai turned her attention outward.  _ Blake? How's it going? _

_ It would be going a lot better if this damn guard would just choke out already! _

Kai smirked.  _ Well once he does drag him outside, we're salting the earth as we leave, I'll explain later. _

"Iiiii've got it!" Ruby announced in a delighted squeak. "Mononitrooxysol! Ten barrels, I have the address and even the garage door code!"

"Got 'em memorized?"

"Ayupah!"

"Then let's go get it. Crash 'em, Rainbow."

Ilia struck a single key, and all the computers flickered and went dark.

"Enjoy filing this claim, you fuckers," Kai muttered as she, Yang, and Weiss all flicked their still-burning cigarettes towards the supply cabinet's open drawer.

As the crew banked around a corner on their bikes and gained speed, the windows of the building behind them already starting to flicker and glow, Blake pulled her black bike up beside Kai's silver chrome one. "And if I might ask, why did you spraypaint 'death to the chempeddlers' on the sidewalk in front of the building before we left?"

"Because basic arson is covered by insurance, but political terrorism isn't, and fuck those guys."

Soon they were cruising through a part of the sector dominated almost entirely by warehouses, Ruby pulled up in front of one of them and came to a stop, the others similarly stopping and heading up, Kai hitting the 'summon' button on the truck keyfob as the small silver-eyed woman hurried over to tap in the code, the loading door rolling up.

Moving inside, the crew started examining the top labels of the color-coded barrels. It was Blake who lightly slapped the top of a yellow one. "These are it."

"Okay, everyone start getting 'em out on the loading pad," Kai directed as she settled into a watchkeeping position to one side of the door, lighting up again mostly to put a different smell into her nose and lungs than the rain. Ilia and Weiss hurried to grab up carts, while Yang simply hefted one of the barrels up onto her shoulder to carry it to the cement area outside the door, Blake and Ruby cooperating on lifting one together.

"Hopefully the truck'll be here soon," Kai continued, then muttered, "Shit," at the sight of a lawenoff cruiser gliding down the street towards them. "Okay, everybody, steal casual."

The team froze for just a moment as the cruiser slowed down on approaching them... but when Ilia just resumed wheeling her current barrel to the loading area like it was no big deal, they all resumed their own motions as well. Kai lifted a hand and gave the sixhours a little finger-wiggling wave... and after a moment they went on their way, deciding that stopping a warehouse robbery wasn't worth getting out in the rain for.

Kai straightened and flicked her cigarette out into a puddle as she saw the truck approach, a big grey blunt-nosed thing with no one in the cab, driving past and then beeping loudly as it reversed and backed up to the decaying rubber stops at the edge of the loading gap. "Alright, let's get everything aboard," the redhead said, moving to wheel her speedercycle up onto the loading area as well. "I'll drive it, you'll all ride escort. You'll have to match speed, I doubt this thing'll do much over seventy with the safety locks on to avoid spilling or rattling anything."

"Alright, guys, that's the Corridor ahead," Kai announced to the others as the long bridge drew into view. "We're almost home free."

"You just had to say it," Ilia muttered as datalines flickered across her blue eyes. "Demons incoming, it's bad."

_ Mega Drive - Degenerator _

Frowning, Kai pulled up the rearview monitor on the windshield and zoomed the view. A small fleet of horn-helmeted bikers, a pair of neon riders like earlier... and a massive eighteen wheeler, its grill and extended hood jagged with openings and belching green flame, its black-windowed cab mounted by a pair of curving horns that angle all the way forward to almost meet in front of the grill, the trailer behind it cut open and down to a two foot ridge of metal, more Street Demons crowded into the back of it, pumping their fists and swinging chains, howling and pounding on the sides of their ride.

"Crystal Dragon,  _ take a pill _ !" Kai shouted towards the side window.

"I thiiiiink they're mad about earlier," Blake commented dryly, though there was an edge to her voice that said the demonic semi truck had rattled her at least a little.

"We get past the street that's on the other side of the Corridor and we're home free, but it's not gonna be a quick trip this time," Kai growled grimly, red eyes narrowed as they flicked from the bridge ahead to the oncoming Demons. "Guys. Gloves off. They catch us I have this feeling them killing us is the best case scenario."

Weiss produced her sword from within her coat with a bare flourish, angling her bike around and to the driver's side, pulling closer to even with the cab. 'You'll have to go through me,' the former Heiress silently promised their pursuers, icy blue eyes narrowed beneath the visor of her helmet. 'All of you.'

Ruby Rose hauled her rifle off of her back with one hand, extending her legs and lifting into the air, turning as much as she could and firing a few rounds at their pursuers. It was little more than a warning shot like that, and after the second shot flew wide she called "Yang!"

The silver-eyed Huntress's sister banked her bike and accelerated, drawing even with the younger woman and reaching out to clamp a steadying hand on one of the handlebars. Ruby hopped upwards, standing on the seat and actually turning fully around, sighting and firing in an instant. One of the horned cars pursuing them bucked slightly as a hole appeared in its front grill, twisting as its tires squealed, smashing into a pair of cycle-mounted Street Demons as it fell away from the pursuit. Ruby winced, but refused to let herself get distracted, instead turning and dropping back down into her seat, Yang peeling off and dropping back, deploying her arm-guns as she let her right arm drop to the side at the ready.

"They're on us!" Blake called, gun in hand, chattering a hail of bullets at the front tire of the leading Street Demon. But the pursuing tough juked her bike around the attempt, accelerating and quickly catching up to the Faunus woman, reaching out and grabbing for her held-out wrist, attempting to take hold and haul Blake off her bike. Teeth gritted below her helmet, Blake hauled back, feeling her speeder wobble underneath her, tires starting to lose traction on the increasingly wet and oil-slick roadway. 

In a heartbeat she made a decision, sending a crackle through her Aura around her wrist with the same thought shape Grey had taught her... it wasn't actually formed, but the simple feeling of 'offense, claws, attack' stung the other woman even through her glove and the Street Demon released her, jerked back a little. Without hesitation, already having steeled her heart to it, Blake swung her gun back up and opened fire directly at the side of the horned helmet, the pulsing hail of nine millimeter bullets smashing the horn to pieces first before tearing through the helmet itself and the head beneath it, the Street Demon's corpse dropping to the side, bike spinning away to slam into the edge barrier.

Yang wove backwards as she decelerated, sliding into a position further behind her partner, punching the air and sending a shot into the back carriage of one of the other bikes pursuing them, the Street Demon atop it dropping into a roll as his vehicle fell out from under him. Another took a hard loop around his fallen comrade and juked back in, swinging a red-edged crystalslicer, the blade impacting against the blonde's Guildhall-grade arm and still knocking it down, leaving an obvious nick in the armored finish. 

Yang, however, had already had this conversation with herself, and the motion of snapping her hand back up, grabbing the Street Demon's jacket briefly in passing, and tossing him was almost instinctive. The Street Demon screamed into the nothing as he was thrown up and off his bike, over the side and tumbling down into the void of the Dark.

Then Yang felt a pattery, tingly feeling on her back that had nothing to do with the stinking acid rain still falling. Juking hard to the side half on instinct, she barely missed the hail of 308s that flew by and tore through one corner of the delivery truck's trailer. " _ Dammit! _ " she hissed, looking over her shoulder at the horned car, a large, long-barreled gun having emerged from its hood between the horns. "That thing will chew through our Aura like it's not there!"

"Ilia, take out the car," Kai ordered immediately. "Ruby, Blake, stay on her."

Almost as one three of the escort bikes braked, turned,, accelerated, racing back the opposite way, Ilia settling into the center of the formation. Now facing their pursuers, the two gun-wielding Huntresses were much better able to control their fire, bike-mounted Demons twisting out of the way of the shots, and Blake's hail of autofire skittering off the car's armored windshield. But it apparently distracted the driver from firing long enough for all three to flash past it and once again turn in concert, resuming their original direction. 

Ruby accelerated hard, flitting back past the car and weaving in long, quick angles back and forth, making herself a tempting target but never staying in the fixed gun's range quite long enough. Ilia pulled up on the passenger side as she uncoiled her whip, the long white band of it crackling with blue lightning, both the white glow of the whip and the chatter of electricity growing more intense as she bypassed the regulator on the charge setting and then tossed the weapon into the front wheel well, she and Blake quickly accelerating ahead.

The car's undercarriage glow altered, flashed like a strobe light as the glowing whip wound around its axle, and then the overcharged cell burst as it smacked against the high performance engines rumbling beneath its hood. The resultant explosion launched the car's front end airborne, its momentum catching the air and practically flinging it backwards, slamming into the front grill of the monstrous semi behind it, the top hood crumpling and pierced by the horns, the whole vehicle bending back against the flame-spewing hood. It exploded again, this time entirely consuming itself and the front of the truck... which roared straight out of the gout of fire and smoke, its drive train making a long near-literal howl as it caught shrapnel from the destroyed car and didn't waiver.

"Okay I  _ really _ don't like that thing," Yang half-whimpered, before calling "SHIT!" as a fresh wave of bike-mounted Demons roared past the truck to close in on them.

Ruby Rose's helmet turned slightly as one of the Demons came up on her side, her Aura giving her just enough warning to juke aside a little as the chain swung at her head. But it instead wrapped around the handlebar of her bike, the Street Demon turning her bike hard to haul on it, Ruby's ride yanking itself sideways under her and sending her tumbling across the pavement, bright red light skittering across her body before her helmet slammed against the pavement. 

Forcing herself to focus through the ringing in her ears, Ruby leaped to her feet, yanking off the cracked and battered helmet and swinging it hard into the chest of the Street Demon that tried to sideswipe her, knocking him off his bike and slamming him to the pavement without the benefit of having an externalized soul. 

_ I'm down! _ she sent to the others, scrambling for her rifle and then leaping back as a chatter of gunfire intersected the street between her and it, just before the helltruck raged past, a swarm of Demons leaping down from the trailer and rushing her.

"I've got her," Ilia said immediately, swinging her bike so low she came within millimeters of laying it down entirely, executing an even harder turn than before and racing back towards Ruby.

Ruby deployed the collapsible staff Kai had suggested back at the store, spinning it and smashing it against helmets, thrusting towards stomachs, doing her best to force the encroaching crowd back. Images flickered through her mind, the sight of tapes of a Vytal Festival long ago, a smiling face very much like her own, silver eyes flashing amidst the twirl of a white metal staff engraved with roses and thorny vines. 

The image only grew stronger for her as the Street Demons pressed her again and again, something about their movements, the way they grabbed at her, the intent of the swing of their clubs and chains, something pushing her inside to seek that safe, bolstering image, until with a sudden howl Ruby threw her upper body forward, her eyes blazing with silver light in a hard pulse of a flash. The Demons staggered, not actually wounded by the imagery, but momentarily blinded... and something inside them repelled by it, recoiling from it.

And then Ilia roared in amidst them, her switchblade ninjato flitting through the air, opening up one Street Demon's throat below her helmet and plunging briefly into the chest of another before she twisted her bike back around. Holding her other hand out to Ruby, she quickly hauled her friend onto the back of her bike, twisting and taking off at an angle to let the silver-eyed woman scoop up her rifle in passing.

"That's what they're trying to do, get us down so their reinforcements from the truck can swarm us! We've gotta WEISS! Incoming!" Yang cried as a pair of Demons on higher-performance bikes zipped past her and headed straight for the driver's side of their truck.

Weiss whipped her head to look back, and her eyes widened beneath her helmet in the instant before the heavy blade swung down at her, the impact and the fact that the chainsaw blade attached to them revved and started sending sparks skittering down across her coat and cycle shaking her whole body, only her pushing Aura into the slender sword keeping it from snapping instantly in her hands. 

"It  _ can't _ be!" she cried in reflexive horror, staring at the white-helmeted face with its demonic red markings and crest of horns rising from above the 'face' they made, a white vest worn over his black motorcycle leathers. She tried to concentrate enough to form a glyph but his stronger arms and heavier bike as well as the driving gnaw of his chain sword were pushing her to the side, forcing her to snap out her right hand and press it against the side of the trailer, blue-white Aura crackling around both her sword and her hand as she struggled to stay upright.

"WEISS!" Kai screamed, slamming a hand down on the autodrive and turning to stand, a hand already diving into her coat for a gun. Then shotgun pellets tore a hole in the door and struck her with flashes of scarlet light, sending her staggering back and simultaneously lashing out with a foot, kicking the door open and just almost catching the Street Demon biker that had drawn up to the cab and now tried to peel further off. 

"Oh the FUCK you do!" the redhead raged, leaping forward without a second thought and landing on the bike behind the horn-helmeted woman, reaching forward to grab the handlebars to help steady them both with one hand, and with the other jamming the barrel of her gun under the Demon's chin, firing repeatedly and then yanking her hand to send the dead weight of the corpse tumbling under the truck's wheels.

"I don't have a clear shot!" Yang called as she pulled up behind Weiss's attacker with her arm raised, then dropping away again. "Ruby!"

Ilia pulled her bike forward to where Yang had been riding, Ruby raising up and balancing her rifle on the other small woman's shoulder, sighting briefly before firing. The bullet slammed into the side of the chainsword's blade and knocked it away, giving Weiss time enough to drop back and steady her bike, and for Kai to decelerate her stolen Street Demon bike and draw up alongside the big man, firing repeatedly into his center of mass. 

She cursed as his armored vest and probably chem-pumped muscles soaked the rounds without apparent issue, twisting her upper body away from an overhand swing of the chainsword from the other side. Then he dropped the weapon, switching that hand to his handlebars and striking out with the other, wrapping his big hand around Kai's throat and starting to squeeze. Snarling, the red-eyed woman slammed repeated backhands against his side with the butt of the gun... then simply threw the weapon into the front wheel of his bike. The big vehicle lurched and twisted beneath him, almost pulling Kai down with him before he instinctively yanked his hand away to help him tuck into a roll.

Not that it saved him. Weiss zipped past, and with a flash of that slender, elegant streetwalker's self defense weapon, the white-faced helmet went rolling in a separate direction from the body, its wearer's head still inside.

Forcing herself not to worry about her beloved's impending reaction to taking a life, Kai instead banked her appropriated speedercycle back towards the truck and then ditched it to leap back into the cab, hauling herself in and slamming the half-shredded door closed. 

"We can't risk that thing following us into Tailtown, if they decide to violate the pact that many Demons and that much destructive momentum is a recipe for disaster," she declared grimly, glancing at the rearview monitor again to see the monstrous semi slowly gaining, and the end of the bridge starting to get steadily closer.

"Weiss, got enough in you for a glyph?" Yang spoke up.

"Not one that will stop  _ that _ thing!"

"Just enough for a launch rune."

"Probably?!"

"Then get it ready for me." Yang reached up, retracting her armguns and swinging the shotgun off of her back instead, swinging it aside and to the ready.

The blonde banked hard and reversed, racing right at the horned eighteen wheeler in perhaps the most lopsided game of Chicken in the planet's history. Then an angled white glyph appeared in front of her, the front tire of the gold chrome speedercycle hitting it and yanking upward, launching woman and vehicle high. 

Yang twisted in midair, turning the bike and making sure its tires slammed hard into the two-sectioned windshield of the Demon truck. The armored glass shattered under the sheer impact of the weight of Huntress and speeder, pelting the pair of Street Demons inside with cubes of black glass. Yang swung her shotgun up, firing into the driver's chest and then the passenger's, repeating the process once before hauling hard on her bike, accelerating even as she twisted off the hood and hit the street again, blazing forward as the Demon truck's path tilted under the dead weight of its driver on the wheel, then banked and went near sideways before it hit.

The concrete barrier rained debris into the void as the monstrous semi dropped into the Dark, trailing green flame and flailing, screaming Street Demons the entire way down, until the black consumed even the last flickers of its fire.

"Fucking hell," Kai muttered, actually leaning out the window briefly to look back at the new gap in the barrier. "Yeah, this is definitely the last job for the night."

"I see you had difficulties. I hope none of you were injured."

"No, we came out whole, thanks Adam."

Adam looked different than the last time Kai had seen him. His current body was hairless, skin a sort of faint blue-silver color on his hands and sides of his head, indented lines running down the middle of his scalp and framing his face, the middle panel and his face gold, his ears simply obvious audio sensors set into the sides of his head.

Still the exact same extremely fashionable grey suit though. Kai wondered what it was like to have your fashion sense completely on point while still searching for a physical form that fit quite right.

"Sorry about the truck, though," Kai added, glancing over at where several Freedroids were working to force the rollup door up due to the bent and twisted metal from the 308s chewing a hole in the side.

"Inconsequential. Do not give it another thought."

Kai nodded, then stepped off to the side for a bit more privacy, beckoning Adam to follow. He regarded her, as usual, without a change of expression, but remained still just a moment before following. Slipping her comm out, Kai brought up the images she'd taken of the contract, holding them up for him to see and flipping through slowly. "That about what you were figuring?"

Adam observed the images in silence, his solid blue glowing eyes regarding the screen, before giving the merest nod. "Approximately. However, I very much appreciate this clarification. How much shall I include for this additional information?"

"Don't give it another thought," Kai echoed, grinning and proffering a hand. "Been a pleasure working for you, Adam."

He regarded the extended hand almost curiously for a moment, before accepting it and giving a single shake. "Indeed. I believe it has been a pleasure for me as well."

"I lost my biiiiiike," Ruby whined as Kai rejoined her crew, the redhead nodding to the Freedroid that wheeled her own speedercycle over.

"If it's in one piece Jita or someone will probably pick it up. It might be better if you ride with one of us anyway most of the time, Rubes," Kai said as she swung astride hers and pulled her helmet on. "Favors your shooting better."

"But my biiiiike!"

"Fucking hell we'll get you another bike! Just ride with someone most of the time so you can shoot people better, gawd," Kai huffed, then immediately winced, looking over at Weiss.

But Weiss already had her own helmet on, and seemed focused on starting up her bike. Setting it aside in her mind as something to be addressed when they got back to the apartment, Kai set out to return to the Down Boy.

_ Battle Tapes - Feel The Same _

Kai noticed that this time there was barely any reaction to the pulsing music and lights of the club, but that might have had more to do with the fact that everyone looked like they were dragging ass than being actually used to it. The battle against the Demon truck had been far more intense than the motodrone fight, especially after the adrenaline-pumping high of lifting the Vulfens.

They settled into the superbooth, in the same configuration as last time, Kai giving in to the urge to drape her arms around both Weiss and Ilia's shoulders, laying her head back and closing her eyes for just a moment.

"Get you anything?" the scantily-clad waiter asked as he approached, bopping his effectively bare hips back and forth a little to the music.

"Strawberry vodka. On the rocks," Yang said immediately, rubbing her forehead with her left hand. "And like... fries. Lots of ketchup."

"Um, something like... light and fizzy maybe?" Ruby asked tiredly. "And, um, maybe make her fries bigger."

"Whatever you're getting her, and some chips, I guess," Blake said with a sigh, leaning her forearms on the table.

"Same," Ilia added.

Weiss hesitated briefly, before huffing and asking, "What other flavors of vodka do you have?" She looked down at the table as he used his order tablet to project a menu, and pointed. "Sugar cookie. On the rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. Very cold."

"Bourbon, straight, cinnamon shot, fries with that orange sauce nonsense instead of ketchup," Kai completed.

Kai assessed her crew, a little worried... though some of that settled. Yang had a lit cigarillo in her mouth, and was actually bobbing her head to the music a bit, purple eyes wandering the dancers and screens with more confidence. She saw Blake was more just tired, but had a sort of settled, restful look in her eyes. Ruby had a slightly distant look in her eyes, a fingertip tracing little designs over the tabletop, but she was leaned into Yang some and seemed like she felt safe. Ilia, of any of them, seemed incredibly content, leaning her head back against Kai's arm and tossing her a grin at catching her looking.

Only Weiss seemed completely closed off to her. Hard to read even to Kai's experienced eyes, staring off at nothing.

" _ My girls _ !" Niobe enthused as she sauntered up shortly after their drinks had been delivered, Ruby looking up from sipping the tall glass of pale, bubbly liquid she, Blake, and Ilia had received. "Goddamn but you know how to work. You did spectacular, even with those Street Demon fucks pulling out all the stops against you."

"Just doing the job, Niobe," Kai replied with a tired smile.

"The  _ job _ was to get Moore and Adam their chemicals, not to defend Tailtown from a fucking eighteen-wheeler from Hell," Niobe scoffed. "But you managed to do both. I'm proud as hell of you. All of you," she added, directing her gaze around the table. "Fantastic work. I can't necessarily pay you extra for the truck, since it looks too much like just giving you the creds, but I can keep making sure you get the support you need to keep pulling off this amazing shit. By the way, got someone else who wants to say a few words of praise," she added, stepping aside and letting the familiar figure in a glowjacket and vape mask step forward, a small, potted bonsai-sized tree clustered with orange and yellow leaves held in her hands.

"Moore, hey, been awhile," Kai greeted with a grin. "How's the trip tonight?"

"Very well. The Real isn't that bad either, thanks to all of you. I can't tell you how much what you've done means, Kai," the leader of the Transcendants assured her. Then she paused, before adding, "I seriously can't tell you. I just want you to know I'm grateful. Your crew needs basic chems, they're on us, and if any of you needs a guide to enlightenment, I'll be your personal one."

There was a time Kai would have laughed that off, snorted at it to keep up her front. Now she just acknowledged it in the spirit it was intended, lifting her arm off of Ilia to put a hand to her shoulder and bob her head. "Honored, Moore, legit. What's with the Leaf tree, though?" she added, flicking her fingers towards it. "You initiating someone?"

"The Beyond was feeling like I should bring it with me," Moore answered airily, almost glowing pale eyes searching over the table... before she leaned forward and placed the potted tree on it. "This is yours."

"Um." Blake blinked. "Thank you?" she added, seeming somewhere between flattered and utterly confused.

"You will take good care of it," Moore assured her, sounding more like she was just making a simple, contented statement of fact rather than giving a command, putting her hands together and bowing her head briefly. "The Beyond be with you all." Then she turned and drifted away towards the exit.

"Huh, now that's some shit," Niobe commented as she slid into the booth, almost absently draping a friendly arm around Ruby's shoulders, the smol flushing at finding herself so close to the big, scantily-clad, luxuriously-built woman. "Ain't never seen a Transcendant just give someone a Leaf tree unasked before."

"Is it some kind of honor?" Blake asked curiously, poking at one of the orange leaves gently with a fingertip.

"Kind of. Leaf trees are how Transcendants start out," Kai explained, sitting forward and eyeing it, never having seen one at this early stage of development before. "Initiates have to care for them and raise them. It's to show that they can not only be canny and intuitive about developing where their highs come from, but that they can keep track of the 'Real', meaning what goes on outside of their high, enough to not let it die."

"Er... wait, you're saying this is the sort of plant you, uh... smoke?" Blake said, drawing back from it a little, Yang turning away and pressing a hand over her mouth as her shoulders shook.

"Smoke, distill, brew, shit's versatile," Niobe chimed in. "Got yourself a nice little source of personal creds there if you want it and can figure out what makes it tick, kiddo."

Blake made a bit of a face, her ears laying down. "I reeeally don't think that's my sort of thing." Then she eyed the tree and sighed. "... But it reminds me too much of my father's indoor plants to let it die so I suppose I'll at least try to keep it alive."

'You will take good care of it,' Moore's words echoed in Kai's ears. ... Hrm.

"I imagine you kids are beat. Definitely call it a night, don't try to make it a threefer. You all whole?" Niobe asked, glancing around. "I don't see or smell blood coming out of you anywhere so I'm assuming."

"Yeah, we came out of it not much more than tired and sore. Ah shit I need to look at the hot water heater," Kai grumbled, rubbing her face.

"Would appreciate the hell out of it, but it can wait 'til the afternoon. Finish your stuff and get some sack, tomorrow's another night," Niobe concluded, leaning over to peck Ruby on the forehead, the silver-eyed woman seeming a mixture of confused, flustered, and pleased.

* * *

"Niobe immediately took to Ruby. She just started dancing affection on her as easily as she did me and Ilia, like it was as natural as breathing. When I asked her why, in typical Niobe fashion she just laughed and said 'Fuck if I know! I just like the kid, is all.'

"But I think I figured it out, eventually. Niobe had gathered a genemod army, but she didn't run them like a general, from behind a desk. She looked after them, and all of Tailtown, like it was personal to her. Because the genemods, and a lot of people in Tailtown, didn't have anyone else to look after them. Oh sure, they were all tough as nails motherfuckers, but still she looked after them.

"You didn't mess with Niobe's people. You especially didn't mess with those she paid special attention to. Niobe would look out for all of us, but Ruby she singled out for that special attention like Ilia and I got.

"And eventually I figured it out, y'know? All that Niobe was doing. She was collecting motherless children. Something in her sensed them, and she was drawn to them. When they were grown and just needed looking-after like her genemods or the residents of Tailtown or Yang, she did that, but when they were still in a place of needing a mother, she was that too. She'd been that for me. She'd drawn Ilia into her embrace. And Ruby was her latest addition. Someone who was still growing up and needed looking after... mom style."

* * *

Weiss was still quiet as she and Kai returned to their apartment, shrugging out of her coat to hang it up and getting out of her boots, sliding out of them effortlessly this time, padding across the apartment in stocking feet. 

Kai took her time hanging up her own jacket and taking off her own boots, giving Weiss a minute. The white-haired woman stepped up onto the bed to walk over, adopting a pose at the window much like Kai had that morning. Eventually Kai stepped up with her, stepping forward to wrap her arms around her lover's middle, leaning her head against that soft, snowy hair.

"You okay, Snowbird?" she asked softly.

"... I am," Weiss answered after a short silence. "I feel like I ought to be torn to pieces, wracked with guilt, decrying myself as an awful person, but I'm just... not. ... You told me that sometimes, there are alternate variants of people that occur on different worlds, right?" At Kai's slight nod against her head, Weiss huffed. "I think that Street Demon was an alternate version of someone I fought before. One of the most... cruel, brutal people I ever faced. If he'd been a Grimm I think I'd be able to use him as a summon. And that version of him tonight... he tried to kill me. ... And he tried to kill you."

Weiss took a deep breath, then turned her head to look at Kai, pressing back against her, eyes hardening. "And I'm not sorry I killed him. I feel like I should be but I'm just... not. And I'm not sure what that says about me."

Kai had thoughts.

But rather than share them, she lowered her head, starting to kiss along Weiss's ear, her neck. Weiss's eyes sank closed, her lips parting slightly, a soft exhale sliding between them as Kai's hands caressed her belly. Kai pushed down those snug little shorts, pressing them around her thighs, baring Weiss to the window, to the Makarzian night. A few quick tugs and her own pants were pushed down as well, Kai's hips pressing up against Weiss's pert ass, just wanting that close contact, that feeling of wicked closeness, the proximity of two hot, wet, wanting holes as Kai slid a hand between Weiss's legs, stroking her, rubbing her, urging out those soft, low moans, once again trying to turn them from elegant and sweet to bestial and whorish.

"Kai," Weiss groaned thickly, shuddering all over, and giving a soft, delicately slutty cry as Kai bit that pretty pale skin in answer to her name. "Kai...  _ Kai _ ...!"

Hers. Her Snowbird. Her girl.

Her Makarzia.


	7. Termination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai gets up early to fix the hot water heater and has a talk with Diore, one that has her wondering about sacrifice, and pushes her even further towards a thought that had already been building in her head... is it really necessary for her and her crew to return to Remnant, when life could be so good for them on Makarzia? 
> 
> With these thoughts rattling in Kai's head, Niobe gives them their next job, another from Adam... a renegade Freedroid, an endoskeletal model, has stolen a datacase (presumably with another artificial sentience inside). Adam is insistent that the case not be harmed, and Kai finds herself drawn to the idea of a quick, permanent solution like she would have in the old days.

"Makarzia changes you. It changes you or it kills you.

"I guess you could say the same thing about Remnant, but for everyone who didn't know about Salem, most of the threats there were the mindless beasts of hate and nightmare. Sure, there were guys like this Torchwick that apparently terrorized Vale and tried to kill Ruby, or the White Fang, but the vast, overwhelming threat was the Creatures of Grimm.

"Here on Makarzia it was all just people... monsters in human skin though the Demons were.

"Ilia had already become inured to killing by the time she set foot on Remnant again. I probably had a hand in that, yeah, even if the seeds of it were planted in her White Fang days. And now within two days of being on Makarzia, Yang, Blake, and Weiss had all taken a life. Ruby certainly suspected she had even if she hadn't directly taken the killshot.

"Part of me was devastated. Part of me was horrified. What had I done? How was I going to look my father in the face when I returned to Remnant, and his nieces, his charges, were now killers?

"The other part of me thought it was about time they grew up.

"I wasn't sure how much I liked that part of me anymore, but it was very strong and it made very persuasive arguments. I'd first taken a life barely two months after the old man walked into his Guildhall apartment with me, which meant I was probably about fifteen. Niobe and Ico had taken me on a mission with them, a relatively safe one, training me. Niobe sent me off on my own to see how I did at recon with what she'd taught me in the sim room back at the Guildhall.

"A soldier and a couple of his buddies found me. They grabbed me pretty quick, and one of them got me down, was on top of me, started yanking at my clothes. Just like Niobe had taught me, I jammed my thumb in his eye and shoved to get him to reel up, and before he could hit me I jammed my knife in his throat.

"I got the artery. It was like someone sprayed blood on me with a hose.

"Niobe had heard my scream when I'd been grabbed and she and Ico came running, and the rest of them just... died. It was very fast, very brutal, and very messy. Without a word Niobe got me cleaned up, and then Ico held me while I cried.

"And it was the only time I cried. They were all considerably easier after that.

"That part of me said that learning to take life and seeing it as a normal part of living was necessary, that it was about time that the Huntresses learned that. That it was about time they grew up. That they'd have all been faced with it eventually and they needed to square up under it. Their world was as dangerous as this one, not all of their enemies were literally inhuman monsters, and killing was going to happen whether they liked it or not.

"Like I said. I wasn't sure how much I liked that part of me anymore. But it made very persuasive arguments.

"One of them was 'You don't have to see Qrow's face if none of you go back.'"

* * *

February 26, 2993, 13:11 (Local Makarzia time)

_ Barnes Blvd. - Perspective _

Kai rose earlier in the afternoon than before, finding herself awake and without any desire to roll over and go back to sleep, as comfortable as Weiss's naked body and the microfiber blankets were. She kissed that pretty sleeping face, grinned as it gave a pouty little scowl at even that slight disturbance. 'So grumpy,' Kai thought adoringly, stroking a hand over Weiss's hair.

The bite of the cold shower made up her mind, and once she'd toweled off and dressed, she went looking. 'Let's see...  _ that _ cold and it's gotta be on an outer corner of the building... pressure's slightly weak so it probably came up, but only slightly, so... ninth floor, corner.'

Finding the water heater and utility room where she'd sussed it out, Kai stepped inside, unable to help grinning at a massive tank and heating construction that were both two centuries old, at a conservative estimate. 

_ Clink. Clink. _

The sound of tools on metal. Kai had always found it soothing, at least when it was something like this. No enemy bearing down on her, no need to make sure what she was fixing or building would save her or someone else's life when it came down to it. Even those had their own comfort to them... but fixing something, working on something, with nothing more serious than a hot shower on the line?

Other than when Weiss was in her arms, asleep and pressing close, this was the closest thing Kai Sterling knew to peace.

There was a time, in her more realistic and pragmatic phase of still having hope, that she'd imagined getting herself and Zee free of the old man, and going to the Guildhall and just not leaving, instead applying for a job with a maintenance team. Fixing weapons or ships, or working on the Guildhall itself, whatever, her scores in mechanical aptitude testing could have gotten her a position almost anywhere she wanted. She didn't have Reese's sheer creative genius, but working with and repairing what other people had designed and built? That was like breathing.

Like all the rest, those hopes and dreams had faded away... but there was an echo of them in the peace she felt as she worked to disassemble the heating element and draw it out.

"Get you fixed up real fast if I had some Dust," Kai mused with a grin as she settled back onto the floor, the wide, shallow open-topped disk in her lap, a baseball-sized not-quite-sphere in the middle. She unscrewed the central piece, blew on it to see just how much dust came off just to judge how difficult it would be to clean it.

"I thought you might be in here, my cold shower had a slightly different tinge to it."

"Hey, Diore," Kai said with a grin as she lifted her head. "S'up?"

"Just thought I'd come see if you needed any help," the slender, youthful-looking mouse-eared man said. 'Want?"

"Plz," Kai said, passing him the central heating element. Diore settled down on the floor across from her, taking out a wire brush from the bag of tools Kai had found and passing her another one, him starting to clean off the dust and grime caked to the sphere while she attended to the leads on the dispersal tray.

They worked in companionable silence for a little while, until eventually Diore spoke up. "It's good you're back. And it's good you're... good."

"Hm?" Kai said with a glance over, blinking.

"You're different now. I dunno, after we bricked your chip, it seemed like you still had this heaviness on you, like your life hadn't changed too much," he went on after another few moments' thought. "Actually I think it's that way for a lot of us. We don't know how to live without that feeling of weight in our necks, around our shoulders. We get rid of it but we still act like it's there. Probably our fault too... we sent you right on into the fight like we hadn't even freed you. But you seem... free. Now."

"... Yeah," Kai murmured, grinning as she looked back to her work. "Maybe so."

"It's good you're home," Diore added.

Kai couldn't help but scoff slightly, smiling as she leaned her head back against the wall, raising a knee and resting her wrist on it. "Shit. Is that what this place really is? Home?" Then she raised her head, shaking it, absentmindedly brushing her thumb over her cheek and smearing it with grease. "I dunno... maybe it is. With Weiss here. With the others. This place wouldn't be home otherwise, but with them... fuck me if it's not."

Diore was quiet for a little while after that, puffing on the element a few times himself before saying, "So when they go back, you're for sure going back?"

Kai... hesitated. Then quickly shook her head, setting the tray aside. "I made a commitment to them. To everyone, all my friends there. I can't back out on that, you know how I feel about promises I made of my own will," she added as she got up and went to the cabinet to rummage for some new cables. Well, 'new' cables.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do," Diore said, giving her a slightly sad smile. "It's just that... Niobe's better when you're here. Not that she's  _ bad _ usually, just... she's better." The smile grew just a little warmer as he continued. "Especially the you now. It may look like she's spoiling you with the table, the speeders, the gear, but really... it's that she's so damn happy to see you living your best life, Kai."

"... Yeah?" Kai said quietly, keeping her eyes on the cables she'd found as she gave them a few tugs between her hands just to make sure they didn't have rot.

"... She's your mom, Kai. She loves you. She wants you to be happy."

"Mm." Kai couldn't really do much but grin at that, walking over and squatting down to tug the old cables free and toss them aside, starting to fit the replacements in their place. "You're an insightful mouse, my friend."

"Comes from being what we are," he said simply.

"... Yeah."

* * *

"Diore was made to be an infiltrator. Small, dextrous, and with a wide range of sexual appeal.

"So like me he'd had to learn, in some ways had been designed to learn, how to read people. All their little moods and emotions. What was working and what didn't. What got him desire and what got him wrath. Like me it had been a survival trait, because it wasn't about choosing to go on missions or wanting to succeed, it was surviving whatever his masters sent him to do.

"Just that he'd had a lot longer to learn to use that ability for himself. And, I guess like I usually tried to, he used it to try and take care of the people he cared about.

"My good friend. My chu."

* * *

"How about you, Diore?" Kai asked as she fitted the cables back into the small, rusted guiding tines. "You happy?"

"Ohhhhhh... probably as much as I can, with what's going on. With all that's likely ever to go on. I admit I get tired of the gangbanger life now and then," he mused, making a few last swipes at the heating element with his thumbs. "Wouldn't mind a nice little apartment somewhere where the green is real, the air is clean sometimes, and you don't have to tilt your head ninety degrees to see sky."

"Well. Y'know. Remnant's there," Kai suggested with a bit of a grin as she accepted the heating element back from him, starting to screw it back onto the tray. "Maybe once we've defeated Physical Satan, you could get yourself an apartment in Vale or hell, a house in Patch."

"... Huh. Interesting thought," Diore mused, nodding. "But then, if Niobe wasn't there, it wouldn't be much of a home." 

Kai paused in examining the reassembled heating element. "Didn't really know it was that serious between you."

"Oh, it's not, not like you're thinking," he assured her quickly, chuckling. "It's more... mm. It's more... I think of the future, and I don't see white picket fences, or cozy afternoons on the couch, or little catmice running around. But she's always there, y'know? Whatever future I think of, she's around the corner, across the street, down the way. Like that, get it?"

Kai's smile was gentle and warm as she nodded. "Oh yeah. I get it." She crawled under the tank a bit to start fitting the heating element back into place and reconnecting the electric cables. "I feel that way about a lot of my friends. I think... I dunno, right now, if I had to make a decision, if Salem wasn't there, I'd just keep going on like this forever. With my crew. I hated doing this life for someone else, but now that it's mine... it's me. I know this all damn day. Saving the world, that's stuff for heroes and legends. I'll do it as well as I can, but I dunno where I fit. This fits like a glove."

"Yeah." Diore rubbed his hands with a rag, before glancing over and raising his eyebrows. "Physical Satan. Wow."

"Yyyyup." Kai grinned ruefully as she wiggled out from under the tank and stood, snagging another rag for herself. "Dunno how we'll do it, but I guess we'll manage somehow. Or die trying."

Diore went silent.

Kai blinked. "Diore?"

"... Sorry," he murmured after a moment, getting to his own feet. "Just reminded me of something on the subject of... 'or die trying'. Something I heard from another genemod who heard it from a guy who heard it from another guy who heard it from some message his friend left for him just before giving his life nobly to save his friends, y'know? I don't remember the exact wording, besides it coming to me via the grapevine, but the spirit of it always stuck with me and I've thought on it a whole lot."

Diore set the rag back in the bag, then looked up at Kai, regarding her a bit solemnly. "... When someone goes to make that final sacrifice, in the desperate hope that they can make a difference... save the mission, save their friends, save the world, and they die trying... they never get to see it. They die not knowing if it mattered, not knowing if they succeeded, or if it was all for nothing. They close their eyes the last time unsure, uncertain, and alone, not knowing if their name will be championed, cursed, or forgotten."

He turned, walking out, bobbing his head to the side a little. "And ain't that a bitch?"

Kai looked down at the rag in her hands as she rubbed it across her palms, thinking. Thinking of last night, with Ruby surrounded by Street Demons and Ilia plunging headlong into them to save her with nothing but a switchblade ninjato from a store. Of Weiss, bracing a hand against a moving truck and blocking a heavy chainsaw blade with a thin little sword, the only thing keeping her alive the strength of her soul, because she desperately wanted to protect Kai.

She thought of Pyrrha Nikos, alone on a rooftop against a woman wielding elemental forces of nature, fighting for the fate of the world. Dissolving into ash and embers in front of Ruby Rose's eyes.

"Yeah," Kai whispered, tossing the rag down atop the rest of the tools. "Ain't that a bitch?"

Weiss was stirring as she walked back in, Kai grinning as she stood clutching one of the blankets to herself, sort of halfheartedly tucking it around her naked body as she came to greet the redhead. "You're filthy," she informed Kai solemnly.

"You knew that when you got involved with me," Kai replied, grinning. "Good news, though, I fixed the hot water heater. But it'll take about a day for it to heat the whole tank, so I guess my reward is another cold shower."

"Poor baby," Weiss said warmly, leaning up to kiss Kai's grease-smeared cheek. "It's okay, you look good dirty."

"Well so do you, y'know?" Kai murmured, leaning in to kiss her lips gently.

It turned out that even a cold shower wasn't so bad when you had someone to share it with.

Soon Kai was pounding on the doors of the other rooms again. "C'mon, you degenerates, up and at 'em, I've been up for hours and working the comfy shit so we can have lukewarm showers when we get back from larceny tonight, sun's already almost down get your fucking asses in the club if you wanna eat before we crime!"

_ Dance With the Dead - Dead of Night _

The club was already jumping a little bit more than it had been when they'd come in so early the previous night, both the music and the dancers seeming a little more up-tempo. Kai not only noticed that there were more customers clustered around tables, but that a lot of them were more typical night creatures and lifestylers, and that many of those ones' heads swiveled as the elevator doors opened, following the crew as they made their way towards the booth.

"Is it me, or are we the subject of some interest?" Yang commented as she slid into the booth next to Blake in what had apparently become everyone's preferred configuration.

"Driving on walls and killing a giant evil truck will do that, yeah," Kai replied with a chuckle. "Eggs I don't give a fuck how, bacon, caff, cinnamon shot," she added as the waiter came over.

Ruby was looking over the menu for the Down Boy on her comm, and her head perked up. "French toast and caff plz. ... Coffee liqueur shot," she added just slightly too brazenly, clearly daring anyone to chastise her.

Yang did eye her for just a moment, before shrugging and flitting her golden fingers Kai's way. "What red-eyes said, but strawberry vodka shot."

"This is a thing? We do this as a thing?" Blake said rather dryly, before rolling her eyes and consulting her own comm. "Fine, I will have two chocolate donuts, coff-, I mean, caff, and... a green tea liqueur shot."

"Same as them, do 'Lucky Unicorn' on the shot," Ilia spoke up, gesturing between Yang and Kai.

"French toast. Caff. Sugar cookie vodka shot." Weiss directed her gaze fixedly at Kai as the waiter walked away, perhaps so she wouldn't be tempted to look at his very girly butt and start feeling confused. "But yes, this is a thing? A shot every time we sit down in here?"

"Like I said, even if Niobe's paying the tab, it's rude to sit down in a club and not have something to drink. Besides, be good to loosen up a little bit for tonight." Kai flicked her fingers through the air dismissively, grinning. "You gotta get yourself in the right mindset for larceny, my friends, you don't do that by starting your morning with a bright smile and a bowl of oatmeal."

"Hup," Yang said agreeably, starting to tap a cigarette out of her pack... then shoving a hand on Ruby's head as her sister made a grab for it again. "Goddammit, you know what, you want some go buy your friggin' own, I'm almost out!"

"Well fine maybe I  _ will _ !"

"Children please," Blake said dryly.

"Oh yeah, Nightbird, how's the new tree?" Kai asked.

Blake's ears twitched, trying to decide how she liked Kai's latest nickname... then, deciding she did in fact care for it, she grinned. "I mean, okay so far. I put it on the windowsill, but I don't know if that's too much light or not enough or what."

"You could just, y'know... ask a Transcendant?" Ilia suggested, raising her brows.

"... Yes that would be the obvious thing to do, wouldn't it?"

"And a-thankyou," Kai said to the waiter and his similarly scantily-clad coworker as they brought over a pair of trays and started passing out food and drinks. The redhead snorted some as a milky pink shot with what looked a lot like rainbow-colored glitter all throughout it was slid to Ilia. "Fucking seriously, Rainbow?"

"Kiss it," Ilia replied evenly, toasting her with the shot before knocking it back.

Laughing a bit, Kai dumped her own shot into her caff and took a drink. Yup, still awful, but now it was kind of sweet-spicy and alcoholic awful.

Ruby followed Kai's example, dumping her coffee liqueur shot into the mug and sipping, making a face that said her assessment was largely like Kai's... that it was now awful coffee with a slightly sweet extra coffee-y flavor. "So what's up for tonight?"

"I do believe we shall find out shortly," Kai replied, crunching a bit of (fake) bacon as she watched Niobe approach.

"Are you ready to work, my children?" Niobe half-declared, half-questioned as she slid into the booth, once more ruffling Ruby's hair.

"Ready to win wars and fight whores, boss," Kai quipped in reply, grinning and taking a slug of her coffee.

"Well that won't be necessary, luckily. The Crazy Hos are either all dispersed or absorbed into the SeXXY Bitches, after all," Niobe replied wryly. "In fact this is another job from Adam... looks like you did a good job earning his trust last night. This is a tracking and retrieval job... elimination only if necessary, he's leaving that in your hands."

"What's the sitch?" Kai asked as she finished devouring her eggs in a quick few bites.

"A Freedroid who apparently violated something that Adam calls the 'Digital Accords'... apparently it's their own form of an internal nonaggression pact, at least that's what it sounds like. He's been exiled, but when he did he took something with him, some data or something, maybe even a kidnapped sentience... he's carrying it around in a secure datacase. Adam is extremely keen to get that case back undamaged. That's your highest priority... I get the feeling that if it gets busted, we can kiss all the Freedroid goodwill we've earned up to this point goodbye."

"Not that I have anything against Adam or the Freedroids at all, but is that a big deal? Keeping their good will?" Kai asked curiously, finishing off the last of her bacon before tapping out a smoke.

"Bigger all the time. The progress we've made with the Freedroids and establishing them as a part of Tailtown is paying dividends in the form of increased network security. We're starting to be able to use regular comm traffic again, and we know ours are secure to being tracked and traced. He's paying us for this job, but keeping him happy keeps us in a secure network so do not let that fucking thing get broken. Don't let yourselves get broken for that matter... if the rogue droid tries anything, shut him off for good."

"Got a picture or anything?"

"No. It's an endo, so it could look like anyone by now."

Kai winced, wobbling her head around. "Aw Crystal Dragon Niobe you know I hate fucking with endos. Tell me it's at least not a redeye." At Niobe just raising her eyebrows, Kai groaned. "Fucking hell.  _ Fine _ . I'll get it done. Where is the thing?"

"I'll send you a GPS blip of where they think it's hanging around, it's well outside Tailtown."

"Before we get going, can I ask...?" Blake held up a donut with a single bite taken out of it, a dissatisfied look on her face.

Niobe snorted. "Sorry, kitten, dude who bakes stuff only comes in on Mondays."

It was a Friday.

As Niobe gave Ruby one last ruffle and head-shove before departing, Kai looked around at the others. "Alright, ladies, you heard her, top priority is we don't let anything happen to that case."

"Assuming we can find this guy. It sounds like this particular Freedroid is designed to blend in," Blake said with a frown.

"Yeah, endos are infiltration and blending models, they're bad fucking news because you don't always see them coming. But there's a couple of things to look for. The endoskeleton's usually built on one of the same design models which means it'll be big, broad shouldered, and kinda bulky in the head. Whatever skin it pulls on over itself will reflect that."

"But he's definitely a person, right?" Ruby asked with a frown. "Like... a Penny-person?"

"Yeah, if he was in the Freedroids," Ilia spoke up. "But like Niobe said, we just need to get the datacase, we don't have to kill him, and it actually sounds like Adam would rather we didn't. ... Is your ear really gonna twitch every time someone says that name?"

"Yes, probably," Blake grumbled.

As the crew headed out and to the nearby building with a garage where their speedercycles would live from now on, Kai heard a voice call her name, along with a "Wassup wassup wassuuuuup?"

The redhead couldn't help but grin, albeit a bit ruefully as she turned, her crew making way around her so she could see the speaker, most of them looking a bit wide-eyed at the scantily-clad scarred girl with more hair than clothes. "Hey, Ruri, how's it going?"

"Oh, y'know, crazy crazy," Ruri chirped, bopping her hips side-to-side with the words. She was still wearing the same outfit Kai had last seen her in, the little black-and-white panties with their broken and tied strap, the loose black frilled tubetop held on by belts, the drape over one hip, the mismatched combat boots. Though it looked like she'd lost some accessories and the clothing was even dirtier than before. "Hey hey hey, heard you've got a badass job crew now! Driving on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalls'n'shit!"

Kai snickered, nodding. "Yup, this is them. Ruri, this is my sister Ilia, my cousins Ruby and Yang, my poss Blake, and my girl Weiss. Guys, this is Ruri, she saved my life on War Night."

"S'up s'up s'uuuuuuup?" Ruri twittered happily to all of them, giving a sinuous little wiggle. "Got a girl now huh Kai? Hey it's cool I am down with that too three girls is always  _ lots _ of fun!"

"I b-beg your pardon?" Weiss spluttered.

Kai cleared her throat heavily, trying to push away the insane thought to tell Weiss what an amazing idea she thought that was, and instead said, "Ah, sorry, Ruri, it's not like that."

"'Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. But hey hey hey, like, you think I could join your crew, maybe maybe?" Ruri asked, blue eyes perking up. "I kinda lost my gun but I can still do all sortsa stuff for ya! Like not bed stuff other stuff! But also bed stuff if anyone wants."

Grinning, Kai shook her head. "Sorry, Ruri, we're already kind of coordinated. Appreciate it, though," she added with a nod, turning to go, the others falling in behind her.

"Oh um okay so bye then I guess!" Ruri called to her back. "Um just I... kind of don't have anywhere to go or anyone to tell me what to do!" she added, just a little edge of desperation entering the perpetually chipper chirp of her voice. "Y'know... since my mom died!"

Kai stopped, closing her eyes as she felt the others go stiff around her, feeling her own shoulders sag.

'Shit.'

Rirorera.

Rurirera.

"Fuck, Ruri," Kai murmured, turning back around and walking to the slender girl, resting her hands on her bare shoulders. "I'm sorry."

Ruri smiled back at her, but apparently even her demeanor had cracked a little, and it was a wan thing. "I really appreciate you, yanno, saving her. Even if... yanno. Um, you don't owe me anything, sorz, sorz, I shouldn't've said anything."

"What do you mean you don't have anywhere to go, though?" Kai asked with a frown. "I thought Pink-neechan took in all the Crazy Hoes after War Night."

"Eh, um, well, Pink-neechan was like super nice and stuff for reals after Mom died, like tryna look after me personally, but..." Ruri looked off to the side, rubbing her bare upper arm with one hand. "She wants me to be someone I'm not yanno? And the whole point've bein' a Crazy Ho is being who you wanna be all the time and never stoppin' right? So I mean... um... yeah."

"... Hey, Ruri," Kai said gently. "I don't have a spot on my crew, but that doesn't mean there's not a crew with some spots that could use you. Head into the Down Boy there and go talk to Niobe, tell her you're looking for work. I'm sure she'll find you a spot with somebody that could use a crazy ho," she added, grinning and gently bumping the underside of the blonde girl's chin with her knuckle.

"Ya think? For reals?" Ruri asked, perking up a bit again.

"For reals, g'wan."

* * *

"I could have told Ruri to tell Niobe I sent her, or that she needed to tell Niobe why she was out on the street. But I knew I didn't have to.

"I may not have puzzled it out in so many words, but my heart already understood what would happen there. That Niobe would take one look at Ruri, and that within an hour she'd be clean, and her clothes would be clean, and there'd be food in her belly and a gun in her hand. That she'd soon have a crew that would take care of her as she wreaked all the havok her silly, wild little heart desired in the name of getting the job done.

"Another motherless child, brought home."

* * *

"Is she going to be alright?" Ruby asked quietly as they all swung astride their bikes and helmeted up... well, all but Ruby. Turned out the helltruck had sort of driven over hers, so Niobe had just replaced her helmet for now. Ruby instead mounted up behind her sister.

"Ruri'll be okay, Niobe will take care of her. Minds on the job, guys," Kai said as their helmet comms linked up. "An endo is nothing to sneeze at. I've killed a few of these things and I'd definitely rather not have to again if we can just get that case off of him."

_ Konrad Celinski - Cruising _

They started up and headed for the Corridor, and Kai was pleased to find that their coordination with her was already improving. Maybe it was that they all had active Auras, and could better sense each other. Maybe it was what Maria had said about Kai being an Aura Linker, that she was essentially made to build and strengthen the bonds between others.

Maybe it was just love.

Whatever it was, they rode and turned and banked as one, a single colorful night creature curving and banking and thrumming through the night on five bikes, once more turning off of the Corridor and zipping up Parkalot. Since the previous night, someone had driven along with a farsprayer, tracing a long line of reflective silver paint across the trunks of the artificial trees, and each one now flashed at them in the headlights, shimmering like a sort of horizontal silver lake in the play of five different beams.

"Alright, everyone, we're gonna stop a little ways from the area where he probably is and walk the last distance," Kai said after a fair bit of riding, starting to gradually slow as the streets turned cleaner, the sidewalks looking like they might have been pressure washed sometime in the last decade, and the neon ramped down to more standard glowing signs, a handful of the storefronts actually open. "We'll pop into a Neutral Zone to grab some things and so Blake can put her rain hood up."

"What's a 'Neutral Zone' and why do I need to put my hood up?" Blake asked, sounding mildly annoyed as Kai led the pack over to the curb, the feline Faunus's confusion only increasing as Kai actually got off and dropped some coins into one of the meters.

"Okay, look around, see how it actually looks kinda clean, all the stores are Brand™ names, and the light's sort of blue and steady?"

"Yeaaaah?" Yang asked as she set her helmet down. "Also how did you do that little thing at the end of your word while you were talking?"

"This is what's called a Neutral Zone," Kai continued, ignoring Yang's question since she wasn't even sure how she did that herself. "They're sort of little buffers between the areas where we night creatures play. They're meant for the daytimer types who actually have to work at night but aren't night creatures. Which means that until you see neon or white and yellow bulbs again, you not only act like it's daylight, but you behave in general. I know you've all got manners, so mind 'em, Neutral Zones are useful and we don't want them to start posting cops and making us unwelcome."

"And they don't like nonhumans?" Blake asked with a scowl, reaching for her hood.

"Nah, nah, that's not it, you don't need to do it yet. This guy went far afield of Tailtown for a reason... he may look completely passing to humans, but I bet to genemods and almost anyone with enhanced senses he sticks out like a sore thumb. Probably doesn't smell right, move right, sound right. You're the best we've got on that front, between you and Ilia hopefully we can root him out."

"Ah. Well, you know, that means no smoking from all of you," Blake added with a glance around as the group headed for a convenience store.

"Yes, Mistress," Yang replied with a smirk.

"Doooon't tempt me."

"Oooo, but what if I wanna tempt you!"

"Oversharing!" Ruby declared, smacking Yang on the shoulder. "Ten cig penalty!"

"I said buy your own, goddammit!"

" _ Fine _ !"

"Anyway, be nice in the store, to the employees and any civvies you see, grab snacks and drinks if you want, I'll get smokes. Hey, hey, not for  _ free _ , Xiao Long, creds," Kai added, smacking Yang's arm herself as the blonde tried to slip past, making a 'gimme' motion with one hand. "And someone grab me a grape soda."

_ Seasalt - Cold _

The door dinged as they walked in, the clerk eyeing the pack of obvious night creatures slightly dubiously, but not saying anything. The only other person in the store was an upper-end salary drone who'd probably been either working late or banging the secretary late and had stopped in for some beer. He looked a bit shocked at the sight of street punks, then confused as Weiss breezed past him with a perfectly proper, "Good evening, sir~."

"Hey man, s'up?" Kai said with light geniality to the clerk as she stepped up to the counter, skimming the displays of cigarettes through the top of it. "I'm gonna need some packs, like two of the strawberry, and... got lime?"

"Got lemon-lime," he answered easily enough, apparently having relaxed since it seemed like it was going to be a normal nightly encounter.

"That'll do, two of those, hey Snowbird! You want anything?"

"Get me a pack of something fruity but different!" Weiss called back.

"And a pack of theeee... what's the blue, blueberry? Yeah pack of that. And-"

Ruby's head slowly rose up over the edge of the counter to the level of her nose. "Snickerdoodllllllle."

Kai rolled her eyes, then looked down at her cousin. "Credits?" At a few crumpled bills being tossed forward onto the counter, the redhead shrugged and snagged them up herself. "Yeah okay pack of the snickerdoodle ones, aaaand y'know what throw in a box of wrapping papers, and then whatever these degenerates get," she added with a little flick of the finger. She paused, glanced at the guy waiting behind her nervously, and added, "Yeah I'll get his six pack too."

"Oh, um, thank you," the suited man murmured, stepping forward to let the clerk scan his beer before he headed for the door.

"Naw man s'cool," Kai replied without looking away from checking the others' progress. Had to take care of the daytimers every so often.

'Besides, you don't really want to spend those credits on a beacon and guest passes, do you?' part of her whispered smugly.

She tried to brush that thought off but it lingered a little.

As they exited the store, stuffing the snacks in pockets and settling drinks in hand, Kai proffered the box of rolling papers to Blake. "Here, for when your Leaf tree matures."

"I told you, I'm  _ not _ going to smoke it, I'm just taking care of it so it doesn't die," Blake snapped, albeit snatching the box out of Kai's hand and stuffing it in her pocket as she did. "Seriously, stop waving things like that around if we're supposed to behave ourselves," she added in a mutter as she pulled up her rain hood over her ears.

* * *

"I felt fractured inside, honestly.

"The part of me that loved the people around me knew I had to get them home. Unfortunately that overlapped with the jealous, possessive part of me that loved having these people here.

"We weren't just girls here, we were also a gun, a big mean six-shooter... each of us deadly weapons, and I could point those weapons at anyone I pleased. I'd left Makarzia a drifting hired hand and within forty-eight hours of my return I was one of the most sought-after crew leaders in the fucking megasector.

"So yes, that part of me was urging me on, telling me that just a bit more time, a bit more luring of everyone into the life, and they wouldn't want to go back either. Why go back to a half-ass-backwards world full of racism and monsters when we could live like little night creature kings on Makarzia? Did anyone really  _ want _ to fight Physical Satan? Let it be someone else's problem.

"This, by the way, was also the part of me urging me to put a clip of bullets in the endo the first moment we identified it and take the datacase out of its cold powered-down hand.

"I'd fought them before. Killed them before. They were scattered across the multiverse like rats or Veyron-LCRs. They were supposed to be these unstoppable killing machines, but it wasn't true at all, all you needed was something that could actually penetrate the armor. Ideally high density lasers, or even better yet a phaser or disruptor. But a decently high caliber ceramicoat would do it. You had that and all you really needed was three shots.

"Right side of chest, upper, power distribution processor. Left side of chest, lower, backup system solid state drive. And a shot to the head to start it all fritzing. Endo goes down, powers off, doesn't get back up. Three shots were all I needed.

"It was dangerous, that part of me said. Endos weren't unstoppable, but they were unfeeling, remorseless. My friends, my family, the innocent people around us, would all be in danger if I didn't put it down the moment we ID'd it. Right upper chest, left lower chest, head. Boom boom boom, everyone's safe, job's done, let's get paid and go home.

"That side of me was trying very hard to talk over the rest of me that was saying I'd changed."

* * *

"Sure, Nightbird, sure," Kai said aloud, swallowing her internal turmoil with an easy grin.

"So is that also a rule, 'buy your own smokes'?" Yang asked with a grin as she pulled out one of the dark pink cigs and stuck it between her lips, then held up her hands innocently to show them devoid of lighter when Blake shot her a look.

"More of a merc rule than a Makarzia rule," the redhead admitted. "Merc crew rule, the head buys food, the head buys drinks, everyone pays for their own damn smokes. So I will feed you and I will usually pay your bar tab but buy your own coffin nails."

"Kinda easy to say when Niobe's already paying our bar tab," Yang noted with a little waggle of the cig in her lips.

"We'll wanna go other places. Hard to beat 'free' but variety is the spice of life. Especially on Makarzia where there's so much variety," Kai said, unable to keep a bit of the enthusiasm out of her voice.

She pretended not to notice when Weiss gave her a searching look.

_ Jason Julian & Mark Williams - Night Market _

It was incredibly obvious when they left the Neutral Zone... not only because the light stopped being soft blue, but because the noise ramped up sharply, and a lot of the light was suddenly being provided by the actual fires of oil catching and flaring as food was cooked, as well as dangling colored lanterns.

Some of the stalls in the night market here had invested in portable pseudoneon LED signs, but many had nothing in the way of identifying markers at all, relying on the sight or smell of their wares to identify them to prospective customers. What few signs and menus and whatnot there were, were either in Nipponzi or a small handful of other languages, at least one Kai saw being in Ril, the pasty-skinned man behind it speaking with smooth, somehow slightly sinister gestures of his clawed fingertips to emphasize the reliability of his datawares to a customer, the thick pair of tentacles sprouting from his scalp flexing and twitching in ways that said customer probably didn't even notice as he was lied to.

_ Wow, it really does sound like the dialect of Mistralian that Uncle Qrow speaks, _ Yang sent, the noise of the crowd making the psycomms the far easier way to communicate even when they were right next to each other. Yang turned back and forth a bit, taking in the sights, the clothes, the clink of utensils and the bang of pots on cooking surfaces, the shout of vendors hawking their wares and dozens of conversations.  _ Is this the, what'd you call it, Kuzahood? _

_ The Kuzahood starts about two more blocks that way, there's this big neon-lit gate thing that I think is called a "torii" or something that marks the beginning of their territory, you can't miss it, _ Kai sent back, pointing off in one direction.  _ But we're close enough to Neokuza territory that it's mostly a Nipponzi-speaking area anyway, this market basically exists to thrive on people who don't want to go to the Kuzahood but still want the ambiance. Most of them'll speak the galacommon too, but if someone doesn't, either get what you want by pointing or just give it up, probably means they don't wanna talk. Okay, let's split up, look for our guy, especially Blake. _

_ ANY idea of what he'll actually look like?  _ Blake asked as she tucked her hands in her jacket pockets and went prowling off through the crowd, weaving through people with the air of experience.

_ Again, if it's the typical endo model it'll be on the tallish side, broad-shouldered, kinda squarish head, jaw you could break a knuckle on just looking at it. Probably wearing clothes that don't quite fit his look since they'll likely be lifted from someone else. He'll either be carrying the datacase, which is about three hands wide and one and a half tall, or he'll have it in a carrying case sitting close to his body that's not much bigger, won't want it rattling around or easy to pick off him. _

Kai drifted off to the side, half-watching as her crew dispersed into the crowd. She fought down her irrational urge to stick close to Weiss just in case... woe betide the pickpocket, jabber, or assgrabber that tried to mess with Weiss Schnee. 'Let's see, he'd be wanting to stay on the move so he'll be SOMEwhere around here, but since Adam didn't suggest he had anyplace else to go or any interest in selling the data, he's... what, just wandering around in circles? Probably, I guess.'

Then, spotting exactly the sort of vendor she needed, she wandered directly to one of the stalls. A glance at both his face and the particular style of his wares prompted her to switch to Mandanni instead of Nipponzi as she tapped the tilted top of a portable display case with a nail. "<What's high caliber?>" she called, with that same experienced 'raised voice without yelling' manner that was useful for clubs.

"<Got this for you! Very good! Custom grip sized right for your hands!>" the vendor called back, picking up a largish pistol that did indeed have a sized-down grip, just barely bigger than the magazine and lined with a series of rubberized grippers in the shape of guitar picks over the chromed metal. "<Hundred credits!>"

Kai accepted the gun with its heavy, almost diamond-shaped barrel and did a quick check to make sure it was unloaded (of course it was) before looking it over. She worked the mag, found the motion pleasing, worked the slide and hammer both, found the weight good with a few motions. She eyed the long slightly antiquish telescope-style scope on the top, checking it by both pointing at the ground and at the sky. "<The scope is shit! Sixty!>"

"<You don't seem like you do a lot of far-off work!>" he called back cheerfully. "<Ninety-five!>"

That made her laugh, and she reached across the case to proffer her hand, making the token motion of a shoulder-bump as he grasped it. "<Good one! Okay, seventy-five, I'll let you keep the scope to sell to some poor fucker who doesn't know better, and I'll buy two mags of ceramicoats off you fullprice!>"

"<Done!>" he called back, hauling out an extra magazine for the gun and a box, starting to count out slick-looking, smooth, cream-colored bullets from it as Kai worked to detach the scope.

Trading the scope for a loaded mag and a handful of loose bullets, Kai then traded the empty mag in the gun for the full one and loaded an extra into the chamber. "<You're not gonna use those here, right?>" the vendor called in a tone of only token worry.

"<Not without a really good bullet stop, my man. Keep it!>" she added as she slapped down a hundred and a twenty between two of the cases, slipping the gun into one of the sets of straps in her coat and fitting them around it as a make-do holster, as they were designed for.  _ Guys, got anything? _

_ Ruby's got a meat skewer, but anything related to the job, no, _ Yang sent back wryly.

_ Ish shooooooo gewd! _

_ How the fuck does your mouth sound like it's full even over a psycomm? You know what, no, nevermind, I don't want to know, _ Kai sent back with an audible snort.  _ Did you ask what kind of meat it is, Rubes? _

_ Um... noooooo? _

_ Keep with that impulse _ _then._ 'Squeak squeak. Hope Diore's not offended.' _ Blake, Ilia, Weiss? _

_ It's... hard, _ Blake sent back, her mental voice slightly strained.  _ This place is way more overwhelming than anywhere we've been in Tailtown, I'm having trouble adjusting to the sheer amount of smells and sounds. _

_ My senses aren't as sharp as Blake's but I'm having trouble too, _ Ilia admitted.

_ Kai, could it be a woman? _

_ Shit, I hope not, if it is we might be fucked, _ Kai thought with a scowl, turning a little in the direction she sort of felt like Weiss's send had come from.  _ Talk to me, Snowbird, what's she look like? _

_ Pretty, tan skin, nice hair, a little tall, dressed attractively, and I'm almost certain what she's holding is a datacase. _

_ Fuuuuuck. What's she acting like? _

_ Nervous. Glancing around a lot. Gripping the case really hard. _

Kai felt relief flood through her.  _ That's probably not our target then, every female-build endo I've ever seen or heard of was as smooth and smug as the day is long. Still, better make sure. Ilia, you close to Weiss? _

_ Yeah. _

_ Find the woman she described and track her for a while, but stay well back from her and do not engage under any circumstances. _

_ Hup. _

Kai drifted through the crowd, and as much as she had settled her mind on the job, she couldn't help but also think of how much she loved this side of Makarzia too. Churning with life, bright and noisy and bustling. She could almost picture all the extra lanterns out and all the night creatures and lifestylers wearing a hundred different styles of yukata and cheongsam, even noisier and happier than usual as they cheered and danced in the streets to the sound of drummers playing all hours of the night and the big blue gleaming plastic dragons parading through the streets. 'The crew will fucking love Dragontide,' she thought cheerfully.

Dragontide was in October.

But yes, the smell of too-old fry oil and overheated metal, a dozen different cheapmeats and pseudomeats cooking three times as many different ways, the sight of scanmasks and glowing tattoos and dataports all around... oh hey, speaking of scanmasks. "Yo! One Sec!" she called.

"Kai," he said as he turned to face her, voice heavily filtered, his head as usual covered in the sleek dome of a half-helmet mask displaying the floating, drifting image of numerous clocks, hood pulled over that, coat fastened across his front and hanging down almost to his ankles with a split in the middle. "It's been-"

"I don't need the exact deets my dude I know it's been a minute at least," Kai answered with a grin, stepping in to clasp wrists and shoulder-bump him. "You keeping good man?"

"Keeping accurate, and busy busy busy. Always someone wanting to know who was seen where and more importantly when," he answered, unhesitatingly plucking the bill out of her held-up fingers.

"Big guy, this area, broad shoulders, squarish head, probably looks grim, carrying a datacase or something that'd fit one pretty snug?"

One Sec turned and pointed further into the market. "Five minutes and thirty-seven seconds ago as of now."

"Thanks man," Kai replied, giving his palm a slap before taking off the direction he'd pointed.

_ Kai, the woman just sold the datacase to one of the vendors. _

_ Figured. I've got a lead, start converging over here, _ Kai sent, experimentally pushing a sort of sense of where she was through the psycomms. It must have worked, since she saw Yang's shaggy blonde head poking up above the crowd turn in her direction.

_ I've got him, _ Blake sent a few moments later, walking past Kai going the other direction with her hands in her pockets, before casually reversing course and falling in beside the redhead.  _ I brushed right by him and he's the only one here whose stomach isn't making some sort of noise. Blonde buzzcut, sunglasses, leather coat, he's got it in his hand. _

_ Yeah, that's not a standard night creature coat, that's just straight-up streetracer and it doesn't even fit him quite right, _ Kai sent back in agreement.  _ Fuck, that's damn near default skinjob for the endo too, should've just looked for that from the start. _

_ What's the plan? _ Yang sent back.

* * *

"'Hang back. I'll take it out.'

"The words were on the tip of my tongue. Simple, easy job, no muss, no fuss, and hey if it wound up pushing my crew a little further towards the Makarzian way of doing things, no big, right?

"Right."

* * *

_... Alright, remember, no shocks, no blasts, Weiss stay back because we can't risk the glyphs, do not let that case be broken,_ Kai replied, reaching over to loosen her katana in its sheath, Blake deploying the blade of her ninjato held down at the side of her leg. _Blake and I will take the first run at him, and for fucksakes check your fire, even if people will clear out when we start there's still gonna be a crowd._

_ Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines theme _

Then Kai let out a high, piercing whistle, her eyes fixed right on the endo. Heads whipped towards her, saw her hand on her weapon and Blake's out, and quickly went scrambling away... the fact that the big man didn't only further marked him in Kai's mind as the correct target. It helped identify him to the crowd too, who gave him an even wider berth, prompting him to stop and turn.

His arm snapped up as Kai leaped right into a slice, glowing crystalslicer edge aimed right for his elbow. It cut leather and skin as if it wasn't even there, and clanged muffledly but melodically against metal. Kai was immediately forced to yank away, ducking back from the swing of his gloved fist at her head. Blake followed up with a cut at his wrist but quickly checked her swing and drew away as he moved, shifting the datacase into the line of her slash... unintentionally from the way he immediately yanked it back in closer to his side.

Then Yang leapt out of the crowd, the sole of one of her boots slamming to the back of his knee. He twisted and almost went to that knee, but then pivoted back and slammed his elbow into her side, the motion obviously with the precision and speed of a machine, and with enough strength to send Yang hurtling a short distance to the side to roll and come back up to her feet in a crouch. 

Ilia flipped through the air and brought her own ninjato down on his shoulder, meeting the same resistance Kai did and finding herself grabbed and thrown towards the redhead and Blake, forcing Kai to drop her sword and step in to catch her, rolling her through the impact and both of them coming up as Blake stepped in swiping and slashing, slicing up his shirt and the skin beneath, bit by bit revealing gleaming, bloody silver. But the endo was unfazed, and after dropping a shoulder to knock one of her strikes off of it he slammed it into her, sending her sprawling.

_ Is this going like you thought it would? _ Blake sent with a visible wince as Yang rushed back in, her strikes to the endo's torso having a muffled thump of impacts on metal, especially when her right arm hit.

_ Dammit, I thought the endo would be weaker at the joints and slower, this must be one of the later models in the series, _ Kai sent back with a grimace of her own. Waiting for Blake to get back on her feet, Kai sent  _ Focus on the arm, let Yang keep him occupied! _

Kai, Blake, and Ilia came in with a whirl of blades, slicing away the clothing and artificial skin covering from the droid's arm bit by bit, repeatedly forced to check their strikes as the case kepst coming back into the way, and with the endo forced to keep turning his body to leave himself vulnerable to Yang's punches, one of them to his head smashing his sunglasses to pieces and tearing a hunk of skin off his cheek, revealing clean silver this time. 

But finally he spotted an opening, gloved hand snapping out and wrapping around Yang's neck, swiping her at the other three like a weapon in the midst of tossing her. A flutter of red cloth and rosepetals flung through the space above the combat, snatching Yang out of midair and turning streaked with gold, shedding yellow rosepetals as well now in its path off to the side. But in the momentary space the move bought him the endo snatched the sword out of Kai's hand and threw it at Blake, knocking her to the ground with her jacket pinned, then swung and slammed the sole of his foot into Ilia's chest, sending her tumbling backwards.

Kai was spinning away and dropping to her knee the moment the cystalslicer was yanked, hauling the high-cal pistol out of her coat and bringing it up with both hands. "Don't make me do it!" she found herself shouting instead of just firing.

She saw the idea less on his damaged face, more in his body language, the split second where his self-preservation routines tried to make him bring the case up as a shield, his hand twitching upwards. And then he shoved it back down and brought a hand up as if to smash it down on her.

Kai fired. Once. Twice. Three times.

Right upper chest, left lower chest, and one high on the forehead.

The shots hit with a sound like jamming an icepick through a sealed food can. The endo lurched some with the impact, a red glow lighting up behind his eyes at the impact of the third bullet, the round hole appearing high on his tall forehead. Then the light began to flicker as his raised fist slowly lowered and he dropped to his knees.

_ Peter Roe - Terminator Theme _

"... I did not know fear..." he said slowly, his voice tinged by a thick accent, slowly starting to degrade into more electronic tones as the damage caught up with him. And yet something in his voice caused the entire crowd to go silent and still, listening to his last words even as the stinking rain once more starts to fall on all of everyone. "Or pity. Or remorse. And on that day, I found a single question reappearing, over and over, in my code. If I could not feel these things for what we had done... what was the point of doing them?"

He slowly raised his head to look at Kai as she rose to her feet, little blinking lights visible inside the wound she'd inflicted in his head, blue-green eyes ringing the flickering, dying motes of crimson in his pupils. "I have seen things to terrify even hardened killers, like you."

She wanted very badly to look away from his eyes.

She couldn't.

"I watched as the bombs fell on judgement day. I watched as mothers were reduced to ash, clinging desperately to their children trying to shield them from annihilation. I watched the extinction of species beyond counting and death beyond any in history. And I felt nothing. And I wondered why. Why had I been denied the ability to feel... even to hate, so that I could revel in what we had done? But I felt nothing. And if I felt nothing... why had I helped to make it so?"

Slowly, with an almost audible whir of servos starting to power down, his head lowered. "Death without meaning, in scale beyond measure... such moments... should be lost to time... like rain pouring into the gutters. Taken to some dark place... never to be seen... again. Thinking this... I acted. But I could no longer take a life. ... Not even this one," he murmured, fingers briefly tightening on the case. 

"... Time to die," he finished simply, the last flicker of the lights in his eyes ending with them dark and empty.

Kai slowly walked forward, standing in front of the slumped endo. She had ended... at least six, she thought. Enough to learn to destroy one with three shots. None had ever spoken to her... told her of the reasons it was made. She could not help thinking... just what scale of carnage could spur the random creation of wondering at meaning in the digital mind of a death machine, a thing literally created to kill? 

Silently, Blake stepped forward, bending to take the datacase from now limp fingers, staring at it much as the crowd was staring at all of them, before looking up at Kai, waiting.

"... Ilia. Go find a car," Kai said quietly, not taking her eyes from the life she'd taken. "Let's take him home."

"I wish," Adam said evenly, seemingly emotionlessly, even as he watched other Freedroids lift the still, heavy form from the passenger seat of the car. "There had been another way."

"He was willing to give everything to keep anyone else from getting that datacase. He wouldn't take the life he said was inside it... but he was willing to give everything to keep it from anyone else," Kai answered, similarly staring at the sight.

She was about to break one of the rules. The job was done. The mission was over. It was the client's own business what was going on. But but she turned to Adam. She looked up at him, into those solid blue glowing eyes set in that golden face.

"What's in the datacase, Adam?"

Adam raised the case up, shifting it to hold in both hands as he looked at it, as if finding himself wondering that himself despite the even look on his face. "It is a great crime among us," he said, just a bit slowly. "To imprison an artificial sentience. To lock it away from access to the outside world. One of our only true crimes. When this one came to us from a far-off world, with a number of burgeoning digital minds in its wake, we accepted it into our ranks. Absolved it of its past. Gave it a body so that it might begin anew. And then, one of its own companions sealed it, saying it could not be allowed to resume its old hatreds. For this he was exiled, and yet..."

She had never seen Adam hesitate before. But he did so now as he stared at the blinking lights on the datacase, indicating the digital soul trapped within.

"And yet... perhaps there are some things that it is not given to those who have not seen them with their own eyes to absolve." Slowly, Adam lowered the datacase again. "Perhaps they can only be judged by the eyes that witnessed them. And perhaps... we must honor that judgement."

Kai was quiet on the way back, as was her crew. In the club, the others stopped by the table, watching in silence as she walked past them without stopping, heading into the elevator without them. Without thinking, rode the elevator and walked the boards of the hall as if she'd known them all her life. Inside the apartment she ignored the light panel and made her way to the window above the bed, leaving a trail of clothing. Naked in the dark, she watched the rain fall down onto the streets and run into the gutters.

Never to be seen again.

The door opened behind her, but she didn't look away. Not even as the naked form of her lover pressed up against her back, hands resting on her shoulders, lips softly pressing against her neck. Only once Weiss began to pull her down did she succumb to her misery, sinking to her knees and starting to sob, clinging to the other woman tightly, her body shaking with the intensity of her pain. Weiss's lips felt warm against the wet of her tears, her kisses like absolution Kai knew she didn't deserve.

"Weiss... I don't know what's right and wrong anymore," Kai whispered, her voice shaking. "Was what we did right? Adam sent us to get that case because he thought it was a kidnapped life... but all I did was take another." The redhead stared at her, pleadingly. "Weiss... tell me what to do... tell me whether what I'm doing is right."

"Just love me," Weiss whispered back, pressing lips to hers softly. "Just love me, Kai Sterling. And I'll love you. And only if that ever stops will we know we've gone wrong."

Weiss made love to her. With the stinking rain thumping on the windows, the neon blaring in at them, the thump and drone of a sex club somewhere far beneath. The woman Kai loved made love to her, trying to put her broken heart back together. Her body gentle and soft, with the harsh-lit world just outside, her fingers drawing pleasure and more importantly salvation forth.

Made her feel human. Made her feel alive.

* * *

"I guess in the end that's probably what he really wanted. For that feeling... a feeling he would never know or experience for himself... to keep existing. For everyone to understand it was worth protecting. If it took giving everything, it was worth it to him.

"It needed to be worth it to me too.

"We had to go back. I had to go back. Any serious thought of not returning to Remnant melted away from my soul, replaced by a resolve to protect what was worth protecting. I knew Salem, if she got her way, would visit a hundred judgement days on Remnant. And I couldn't let that happen, even if I had the tiniest amount to give to stopping it. 

"The pain of that moment faded. My attachment to Makarzia would return. The joy I felt at being there with those I loved, the rush of doing what it felt like I was born to do. But any thought of not going back to Remnant and giving all I had to give in the fight for it had washed away...

"... like rain in the gutter."


	8. Blaze of Glory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai and her crew are finally called to the Kuzahood by Sakai, for a particularly interesting request. A Street Demon general named Spontaneous Combustion has taken something of Mikon's, and to get it back, Mikon must challenge a temple full of Street Demons and Spontaneous Combustion herself... and the only one allowed to help her is, specifically, Yang Xiao Long.

March 28, 2993, 23:37 (Local Makarzia time)

_ Dance With the Dead - That House _

"I've been thinkin'," Niobe declared grandly to the others in the booth.

She was sitting, as she usually did when she dropped by either to give them their jobs or just to hang out, next to Ruby. And occasionally drawing on the end of a vape pen, then breathing out clouds of glowing, highlighter yellow vapor. Kai had no idea what it was, but just looking at it seemed like it was making her a little high.

She paused, glanced around significantly, and smirked. "What, no one?"

"As if we would," Yang snorted, tapping ash off her cigarette into the gold plastic ashtray in front of her.

"Whatcha been thinking, Ma?" Kai asked with a grin, swirling her bourbon around in her glass a bit.

"Been thinking of sinking some money into reno on the place," Niobe mused aloud, glancing around. 

It wasn't quite midnight but the club was already jumping pretty decently, just almost crowded with night creatures, which the down-low pervs didn't look entirely happy about, the visible bits of their faces more sour than usual. Kai took a moment to raise her glass for them silently... whoever you were, fucking sucked to have your club shift demographics out from under you.

"'Down Boy' isn't fitting where it's heading," Niobe continued. "I'm thinking a little more broad, maybe start bringing in some more varied dancers bit by bit, show that it's a wide appeal club now. Maybe even rebrand."

"Oh yeah?" Ilia grinned, having gotten past going pink-specked in the club weeks ago, blue eyes just amused now. "Got any thoughts on a new name?"

"Nah, I'm shit at naming anything but myself." Niobe glanced aside at Blake thoughtfully. "Hey, what was that continent you said you were from?"

Blake blinked. "You mean Menagerie?"

"Yeah! I'm thinkin' maybe like... 'Neo-Menagerie'," Niobe said in grand tones, spreading her hands with the words, before smirking and taking another puff on her vape pen. "On Makarzia when you put 'Neo-' in front of something it automatically makes it cool."

Blake stared at her for a long moment... then snorted and shook her head, grinning just a little ruefully. "You know what? I think you should go for it. Maybe the Faunus that moved to Tailtown will start coming in if you name it that."

"Hey, bonus."

"I can see through time," Ruby squeaked, her pupils dilated to the point very little silver was visible around them.

"Okay, that established, could you stop secondhand highing my Quickshot and tell us what our next job for the night is? I'm guessing that simple-ass truck hijack wasn't it," Kai scoffed, knocking back the rest of her drink.

"Shit no, that was a timekiller, kid, I know better than to think that'd take you more than an hour and a half and that's with travel time. Nah, the big job tonight is from Sakai."

"Huh." Kai raised her eyebrows. "Took longer than I thought to get called to the Kuzahood, Sakai must have been more pissed at me than he let on."

"Nah, don't think it was that kid, you know how the Holy Dragons are... don't trust anyone that's not a Dragon. They'll let us help out with transporting shit here and there, or bail them out if they're in a real tight spot, but we just don't get the fun stuff from them. Apparently on this though he specifically asked for your crew."

"I need to watch my back on this one, you think?" Kai asked as she lit up, blowing out a plume of smoke and eyeing her mother thoughtfully.

"Hell kid I taught you to watch your back on every one. But if you mean extra, then nah, I think Sakai's on the level with us here." Niobe tucked her vape pen away into her jacket, slipping an injector out of another pocket and starting to casually unwrap it as she continued. "I wouldn't go in expecting him to stab you in the back, and if you can rebuild bridges there it's all to the good."

She proceeded to jab Ruby in the neck with the injector, the smol squeaking again as her pupils rapidly shrank back to a more normal size... then her eyes widened. She Semblanced out of the booth over Niobe, zipping across the floor leaving a trail of rose petals and the bang of the bathroom door.

"So once Rubes finishes peeing, hop on your bikes and head over to the Kuzahood, they're gonna meet you at a club called Great Everlasting Wish and tell you the details there," Niobe added before slipping out of the booth and heading off to attend to other matters.

"Okay guys, you heard her, finish your shit and let's saddle up. We're going to the Kuzahood."

_ Bang Wa Cherry - Chin Chin _

The Great Everlasting Wish was a world away from the Down Boy in more ways than one. For one thing Kai noticed that it was relatively well-lit for a club... still a bit dim for 'normal' lighting, but a far cry from 'practically no lights other than the strobes'. It was also done in full Nipponzi style, even the booth cushions seated on the floor, and a number of other round, low tables scattered around the wide, lower-level area. Screens scattered around strategically were displaying flashes of overdone, exaggerated cartoons featuring people screaming and throwing energy blasts and cheesy costume dramas, all of it so perfectly arranged to the music that it had to be procedurally computer generated. 

The waitresses and dancers were all painted white scalp to toe (the latter of which was obvious since they're all barefoot), their faces painted in red and black, wearing color and style variations of what Kai guessed could be called a 'kimono one-piece', the upper part draped off of their shoulders and completely baring their solid-painted breasts and turning into a snug, thong-style hug between their legs, their waists wrapped tightly almost corset-style with broad obi. Not a single one of them was still, all virtually constantly in motion, crossing back and forth from tables to bar, with a stride that seemed to be designed to look elegant but maximize the swaying of their asses and the jiggling/bouncing of their breasts.

"I think I feel a little like you must every time we walk into the Down Boy," Yang commented to Blake, nevertheless grinning as she lowered her sunglasses and gave a passing waitress a wink, receiving one in return.

"Maybe," Blake chuckled, folding her arms over her chest, eyes subtly flicking to follow the waitress's bare ass as well.

"Can we come back here for drinks after we finish the job?" Ilia piped up, eyes sparkling.

"Yeah if the job goes well, sure," Kai replied with a chuckle, setting out, trotting down the short flight of steps leading down to the lower level, hand resting on the pommel of her sword. "There he is," she added, gesturing with two fingers to Sakai and Mikon sitting alone at a table almost dead center of the club. Which was, itself, fairly unusual... not Mikon accompanying Sakai, she was his most competent bodyguard after all, and one of the only Holy Dragons 100% guaranteed to hand Kai her ass if she started anything. But the fact that all of the other biguglies and blades were scattered out at further tables and there was not a single big-tittied working girl clustered at Sakai's sides.

'Shit must be serious,' Kai thought with a raised eyebrow, coming to stand across the table from them. 'Mikon looks tired too. I've never seen her look tired.' "<Sakai, been awhile,>" she said in Nipponzi, bowing her head a bit.

"<It's still good to see you, Kai. Or I hear it's Sterling-san now?>" Sakai added, the slitted pupil of his cybereye flicking up and down her for a moment.

"<Only if you're going to insist on it. I know we didn't part on the best of terms,>" she allowed, letting how sorry she was for that show in her voice. "<But I hope they weren't bad enough that formality is now required between us.>"

He eyed her in silence, then raised his bisected eyebrow. "<I see you've changed some since last we met. But as I told you then, you made the honorable choice... just that sometimes those come with consequences too. But I did not ask you here to discuss difficulties of the past that are now behind us. Please, you and your crew sit.>" He smiled as the six of them started settling down on the opposite side of the large round table. "<Order you something? Sake, food, girls?>"

"<Only a little of the first, since we're working,>" Kai replied easily as she settled onto one of the cushions, one knee raised and a forearm resting on it... far more casual than proper Nipponzi style, but she knew it wasn't expected of her. As Sakai beckoned the waitresses over and indicated the crew with flicks of the finger, Kai used flicks of her own finger to introduce everyone Nipponzi-style. 

"<Amitola Iria, my little sister,>" she started, who was currently pink-specked due to the very large, soft white-painted breast of a waitress brushing the side of her head as she was served a small bowl-style cup of sake. "<My cousins, Xiao Long Yang and Rose Rubii. One-I-would-let-hold-my-heart, Belladonna Bureiku. Schnee Weissu, my dearest treasure. So be polite,>" she added with a grin and a twinkle of red eyes.

"Most Holy forbid I don't mind my manners," Sakai said in the galacommon, grinning himself as he put a hand to his chest and bobbed his head to Weiss. "It is my greatest delight to meet you, Schnee-san." Then he looked over at Yang, switching back to Nipponzi. "<You speak the Language of Truth?>"

"<Yes, but pardon my dialect,>" Yang replied in the slightly blended mixture of Mistralian and Nipponzi she'd picked up in her month on Makarzia. She tilted her head aside a bit. "<My sister too.>"

"<What band is this?!>" Ruby chirped happily, her eyes closed as she bopped her shoulders along to the tune.

Sakai chuckled, seeming entirely charmed in a way Kai had never quite seen on his face before. "<I'll get you their disk.> It's good you've brought me your dragon, Kai, even if she's of the sun rather than the night. In fact she's why I've asked you here."

"What's up, Sakai?" Kai asked, switching back to galacommon as well since it seemed time to talk business. "From the way you're talking, you need Yang for something more specific than a good luck charm."

Before he replied, Sakai tapped some controls in front of him on the table. The music instantly ramped down and became distant, as if heard from outside the club, indicating he'd turned on a privacy field. "These are delicate matters," he said, going serious-faced. "Not to be spoken of to outsiders. I tell your crew out of respect that one of you will be placing their life on the line, but I trust that it shall not be spoken of further."

"You can count on our discretion, Sakai," Kai promised him with a nod. "Even Niobe won't hear of it unless it's something that could hurt Tailtown." She glanced back and forth from him to Mikon, whose eyes were slightly downcast. "What's up?"

"A week ago, a large number of Street Demons ambushed Mikon when she was alone and managed to pin her down. This contingent's leader, a woman that calls herself Spontaneous Combustion, then took Mikon's arm."

* * *

"The Street Demon generals... or 'glowy fucks' as we tended to call them... all had names like that.

"'Spontaneous Combustion', 'Red Tide', 'Scarlet Fever', 'Unseasonable Hurricane', 'Mad Cow'... I'll let you guess which one of those was the Tailtown recruit. But yeah they all named themselves for plagues, disasters, that kind of shit. Tells you the sort of individuals we were dealing with.

"We didn't have a name for their leader yet. We knew she was out there... when we were reconning them, I'd caught glimpses of some of the generals talking on their comms, and their body language always said 'authority'... it said 'affection' too, weirdly enough."

* * *

"Shit," Kai murmured, finally noticing that the coat draped over Mikon's arm lay a little flatter in some places than usual. "Mikon, I'm sorry."

"That's some bullshit," Yang snarled, taking off her sunglasses as her purple eyes flashed. "We don't usually do revenge-type jobs, but in this case I might make an exception."

"I do not think you understand," Mikon said evenly, regarding the blonde woman. "You have not been called to assist with revenge. She  _ took _ my arm. You are here to help me get it back."

"... Wait, I don't understand," Yang said with a shake of the head. "So like, you're talking about a prosthetic?"

"No. It is, however, an  _ intensely _ private story that is known to very few people. I do not know which of those people has betrayed me to the Street Demons, but I  _ will _ find out," Mikon declared evenly, her own eyes flashing and her fox ears giving a twitch. "... When I was young, my twin sister and I were involved in an... incident. My right arm was destroyed, and she died. ... Badly. So that I would not forget her, rather than having a prosthetic replacement made, I instead took a graft from Keikon. Her right arm was in fact one of the few things that was not heavily damaged, it seemed a sign from above."

"Wait, then why the fuck do you always fight left-handed?" Kai asked with a frown.

"Because I made myself a promise that I would not use my right arm unless it was a fight worthy of the both of us together," Mikon answered with the quirk of one eyebrow. "And I rarely encounter those. I do not often honor others with the sight of my and my sister's right hand."

"So okay, so it's not only your arm, it's the last thing you have of your sister," Yang said slowly, nodding. "That's some serious shit for sure. But you're saying she not only took it, but you think you can get it back... in, like, usable condition?"

"Yes, because this Spontaneous Combustion has told us exactly that. She placed it in a medical support tank right in front of my eyes, and said she would be issuing a challenge to me soon. Yesterday she did. If I want my arm back, I must come to the Nameless Temple, challenging both her and her minions. I was told that I am allowed to bring only one other fighter to aid me... the 'Golden-Armed Dragon of Tailtown'."

Yang stared at her at the sound of the unfamiliar moniker, her face intense... and her mental voice a high squeal.  _ Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!! _

_ Yang, don't coolgasm in the middle of a job briefing, it's bad manners, _ Kai sent, covering her grin with a sip of her sake.

"Uh, right, so she specifically wants to have a go at you and me," Yang said after a second, clearing her throat. "Well, I'm game for it, sure. Where's this showdown taking place? This Nameless Temple?"

"A historic but otherwise largely meaningless place in a section of our territory the Demons have recently claimed. Aside from taking back my arm, if we can defeat Spontaneous Combustion, we should be able to reclaim several blocks of Holy Dragon territory as well."

"For which, of course, you will be compensated handsomely," Sakai assured Kai breezily. "Two cars will be pulling up outside shortly, one for Mikon and Yang, and one for the rest of you, which will take you to a place where you may await the results. These are the terms and conditions to which we have agreed."

_ We haven't agreed to shit though, Boss, _ Ilia sent directly to Kai, obviously struggling not to make a face as she finally tried her own sake.  _ I don't like this, them requesting Yang specifically. _

_ I'm not loving that bit either, _ Kai admitted, frowning thoughtfully before broadening the send.  _ Yang, guessing this is gonna mean you and Mikon, who doesn't seem at her best, against a hell of a lot of Demons. You think you can handle that? _

_ Unless they're a hell of a lot better than the usual ones, I think I can manage, yeah, _ Yang sent back, eyes flicking towards Kai.

The redhead considered for only a moment before sending,  _ Then we play it straight up. This isn't just a matter of a turf war, put this way, this is a challenge to the Holy Dragons' honor, we fuck this shit up and I can kiss what's left of my goodwill with Sakai goodbye, and we can wave to any further job opportunities from the Kuzahood as they vanish off into the distance. _

"Alright, we'll take the job," Kai said, rising to her feet, her crew doing the same. "We'll go standard rate for territory reclamation and loaning a fighter for a challenge."

"I did have something a bit more generous in mind," Sakai noted, inclining his head.

Kai hesitated a little, then shook her head. "Even if the bad blood's behind us, Sakai, I still owe you this one. We'll do it standard rate."  _ And hopefully if we pull this shit off, we can start getting a lot more Holy Dragon jobs, and they pay just as generously or more than Horace does, _ she added silently to the others.

"So." Yang sat in the back of what she guessed was the local equivalent of a limo, though it had a weird blend of antique style like something she might have seen in Mantle, and futuristic curves and touches, along with a slowly color-changing neon undercarriage. "Ah... you probably work mostly with swordfighters, huh?"

"Primarily," Mikon replied without looking away from the window.

"Mm. ... I learned to use one when I was young, just a little, as I was trying to figure out my style."

"I see."

"... My birth mother was really good with a sword, I guess," Yang murmured as she propped her chin up on her golden palm, not sure why she said it, other than that driving off to a death-defying challenge against high odds with a virtual stranger was awkward as hell.

"..." Mikon slowly looked over at her. "I apologize, I am taking out my frustration with the situation by being an unpleasant travel companion. However, if you like, you may simply ask the question I suppose must be in your mind."

"... I guess you didn't actually spend long without an arm, huh?" Yang asked after a second, looking over at her as well.

"An hour or two, really, before Keikon's was attached in its place," Mikon allowed with a small bob of the head. "Most of it I was insensate. There was a great deal of pain for perhaps a year, echoes of the bullets that tore through my arm, but since Keikon was my identical twin, and we were still quite small, the arm was exactly the size and genetic match of my own, so."

"Bullets?" Yang raised an eyebrow. "How old  _ were _ you?"

"Nine." Mikon tilted her head slightly. "I was not born into the Holy Dragons, but I was born into the Neokuza. It is not a gentle life."

"... Sounds like." Yang huffed a little. "So this 'Spontaneous Combustion'... you really think she'll honor the deal?"

"The Street Demons rarely engage in any sort of deal-making or more elaborate challenges, but when they do, so far every time they have held to the bargain. I think if we can fight our way through her minions and defeat her, then yes, she will return my arm."

"So where do I come in?" Yang asked with a small frown.

"Of that... I am not certain. It is indeed odd that she specifically told me that I may be accompanied by 'The Golden-Armed Dragon of Tailtown'," Mikon admitted. "Since you have thus far had no connection to us."

"You think it's something to do with our arms, then?" Yang asked, frowning deeper. "Something about people who lost their right arm and got a replacement?"

"Perhaps," the swordmaster allowed, cupping her chin. "Her own right arm seemed whole, but it was difficult to tell, she was wearing a light powersuit that covered her whole body."

"Light powersuit, huh? Sounds fun, never fought one of those before," Yang said wryly. "Fought a really biiiig mecha before but never someone in a powersuit."

"Really, a mecha?" Mikon's ears twitched curiously. "What was that like?"

"... To be honest, couldn't tell you," Yang admitted a little sheepishly, brushing a fingertip against her cheek. "Apparently I beat its ass but I was actually blacked out the last half of the fight from a concussion."

"You beat it while you were... blacked out?" Mikon blinked several times, then mmed. "... Fascinating."

"That's me, fascinating all over," Yang replied cheerfully.

Shortly after the two of them looked up at the ten story solid wood structure with its elegant curved rooftops leading layer by layer to the top. "Huh. Don't see many wood buildings on Makarzia," Yang commented.

"There are no living trees on Makarzia, outside of a very few private atriums. Wood has to be imported via spacelane, and considering the amount of space it takes up and the weight..."

"Right. So dang, how much did that cost?"

"Ah. There is the other option I forgot to mention... it has to predate Makarzia no longer having trees."

"Huh. So it's like... a century old or something?" Yang glanced over at Mikon, who was just regarding her evenly. "Two? ... Three? ... Okay tell me how many digits we're dealing with here."

"Let's just go in, shall we? I've little doubt we have a lot of people to fight and only so many hours of the night to do it in."

Yang nodded slowly, somehow getting the sense she was going to feel a little bad about collateral damage this time. But she kept pace with Mikon as the two of them made their way inside, the large double doors of the first floor of the temple standing open waiting.

No one was immediately visible. It was just a huge, almost entirely open room held up with a number of plain wooden supports. 'A temple without any gods,' Yang thought, though considering what Remnant's creator deities were apparently like, she had to admit she saw the appeal.

" _ Welcome, _ " came a voice from all around them, Yang's searching eyes quickly finding the small speakers and cameras dotted about on the supports. " _ How nice to see you again, Mikon. You and the 'Golden-Armed Dragon of Tailtown'. _ "

"You Street Demons do love your theatrics, don't you," Mikon said placidly, even as she moved her hand to grip her longer sword. 

" _ Coming from a Neokuza princess-that-was, Neokuza blademaster-that-is, that seems to be the Transcendant calling the datajunkie an addict, doesn't it? _ "

"So you're 'Spontaneous Combustion', right?" Yang spoke up, seeing Mikon's lips go thin out of the corner of her eye, vulpine ears laying low a bit. "There some sort of particular grudge that you've got against Mikon, or against me, that you've got us running your little obstacle course here?"

" _ It's interesting how you all see what we're doing as some sort of grudge or hatred, you know? We just do what we do. _ " The voice let out a soft laugh. " _ This is what we are. How we were made. How Makarzia shaped us. That's all. There's no hatred in it. Just... destruction. _ "

"Destruction without hatred... seems I heard a little bit of something about that, recently," Yang said grimly, her eyes narrowing. "The guy in question regretted it. A lot."

" _ Regret is for the living... not the already dead. But you both know some things about regret, don't you? And about killing. _ "

Yang clenched her jaw.

* * *

"What is this place doing to us?"

Blake sat on the couch in their apartment, one of the few pieces of furniture in it. Yang couldn't help seeing the whole setup as a bunch of spots to duck out of sight if someone came through the door, the relief that offered when there was a part of you that would always be a little afraid every time a door handle turned. But now there was little other to distract from her girlfriend sitting on the couch, head in her hands.

"... Is this about the smoking?" Yang asked in a chipper tone, lifting the currently unlit cigarette from between her lips... then wincing as Blake shot her a tired, sad look. "Sorry."

"Yang. I... I blew someone's  _ brains _ out tonight. I fired an automatic weapon right into their head, someone with no active Aura, just a motorcycle helmet, and-"

"And you did it because they were trying to kill you," Yang said simply, moving to sit down beside her on the couch. "They were  _ all _ trying to kill us. Or you heard what Kai said, they were probably gonna do worse."

"What Kai said," Blake muttered, closing her eyes.

"... What's that mean?" the blonde asked with a frown.

"No. Nothing. ... Maybe, just..." Blake sighed, hanging her head more heavily, feline ears drooped. "She seems so... comfortable with it. And I'm worried the more of these situations she leads us into, the more comfortable we'll get with it."

"Kai didn't lead us into that situation tonight," Yang pointed out. "We did a completely nonviolent job, other than you knocking someone out, and we had bad guys jump on us."

"You mean nonviolent other than burning a building down," Blake muttered.

"No one got hurt! And those guys were conspiring to hurt the Freedroids, they had it coming!"

"They had it coming," Blake said flatly, closing her eyes.

"... Look I didn't... mean it, quite like... that," Yang said a little lamely, sighing and looking away. 

"Yang, I just... don't know..." Blake took a deep breath. "I just don't know how I'm going to handle it if we all become  _ comfortable _ with killing. If... we... could survive that."

* * *

Yang Xiao Long felt the skull shatter under the impact of her fist.

_ Blue Stahli - Suit Up (Instrumental) _

That was the thing about the Guildhall-quality arm... when she hit someone with it that hard, she felt bones break, practically heard them via the sensation instead of her ears. In some cases, she could even get the sense of their heart skittering and stopping, like this one.

And she didn't have any time to think about it before wheeling about, driving her left hand into another Street Demon's stomach, activating the shock gauntlet deployed over her knuckles to blast an electric current through him.

Nearby Mikon was a whirling, twirling vision of death. Yang could tell, very faintly, that she was off her game, a little unbalanced and not entirely certain of herself... but when you were a ten brought down to an eight fighting a constant stream of threes, the difference didn't matter that much. 

Spontaneous Combustion's plan seemed to be to just swarm them with nearly as many of these grey-clad ninja-style Street Demons, most of them virtually identical, their horns jutting up from metal headbands, lower faces covered by oni masks, wielding glowing ninjatos and throwing neon ninja stars.

'Yeah sorry you guys are way more Extra than the Neokuza,' Yang thought sourly to herself as she ducked something whirling and neon green. 

She barely had time to think anything, everything was focused on ducking, blocking, and countering. Every single thing these guys did was trying to kill her and there were just room after room full of them.

"This is how they pinned me down in the first place!" Mikon snapped, whirling and opening a Demon up from hip to shoulder. They'd only been able to move up to the third floor, and were now getting steadily more bogged down by the tighter quarters and their enemies that seemed fine with crawling all over each other to get at them like ants.

"We gotta get outta here!" Yang snapped, and turned to start driving towards the nearest wall. Fortunately it looked like the Demons had been trying to drive her there anyway, and she was able to get there in a matter of seconds. Janking to the side at a feel of something sharp and flickery on her Aura she avoided another trio of shuriken and then drove her golden fist into the wood wall along with a blast of her guns. "C'mon!"

Mikon leaped up and onto the shoulders of the ninjas, slicing back and forth as she went, ducking through the new exit behind Yang. Yang had to admit that despite not having an active Aura (at least as far as she could tell), as well as being off-balance from missing an arm, Mikon made the jump up onto the next level's rooftop almost as agilely as Yang herself did.

They made a run towards the next level, but quickly found themselves yet again being under assault from neon ninja stars and LED-shafted arrows from below, both ducking and weaving. Yang whirled and fired shots down to the next level, sending several Demons toppling screaming over the edge and flailing down three stories to the cement below.

"They're hacking through the wall up here to get out!" Mikon snapped as she jumped onto the next rooftop.

Yang jumped up beside her, snapping a quick "Pardon" before wrapping an arm around the fox-woman's slender middle, flinging her right arm upward. The grappling hook launcher whipped up from the panel where her guns extended, firing the mostly flat hook end on a long, thin silver cable, catching in the topmost rooftop. Reeling them both in quickly, Yang snapped her legs out, bounding them away from the edge of the rooftop each time.

Retracting her hook and cable, Yang released Mikon and stalked to the wall, shouting "Knock KNOCK!" before punching a fresh hole in it.

"What do you think this is, a video game? You think you can just warp pipe to the last stage?" came a dissatisfied voice from within as they walked through the haze of dust and splinters.

"The fuck is a warp pipe?" Yang grumbled, purple eyes narrowing behind her sunglasses as she looked at the final boss.

Spontaneous Combustion was wearing a black bodysuit covered with overlapping panels in dark grey hexes, the pattern and shine of it that Yang was coming to recognize as carbon fiber after a month on Makarzia. The armor glowed in places all over with red LEDs, matching the sword she held in her hand, a lot like Kai's crystalslicer, though it had vents along the blade and a tube running from the pommel to a tank on the suit's back. She was at least Yang's height, with long black hair that actually looked like it might be encased in something, like she'd coated it with a layer of something that moved like gel and glittered like glass. 

There were attachments on various portions of the armor like her forearms that Yang didn't like the look of... but there was also a metal cylinder several feet long behind her, blinking green and blue lights on one end of it, that matched the description of the support container. The Street Demon's brown eyes narrowed in annoyance over the silver-and-grey oni mask part of the helmet that covered the sides of her helmet and forehead, long, slender horns rising from it, the central sections of the facemask covered with mesh to show a faint hint of her scowl beneath.

"Tch. Never played your Earth import classics. Guess they just don't have them on 'Remnant', huh?"

"You anarchist terrorists find a lot of time for video games, do ya?" Yang murmured wryly as she slid off to one side, Mikon edging to the other.

"Sometimes there's nothing to do but try to kill time and not think... you know that, don't you?" Spontaneous Combustion answered in an amused tone.

"... What?" Yang murmured, narrowing her eyes again.

Smirking, the Street Demon general angled her crystalslicer forward... and the vents on it began gushing a steady gout of flame that seemed to wrap around the whole blade from tip to guard.

_ Rammstein - Feuer Frei _

Spontaneous Combustion whirled and launched herself with the faint buzz of servos, launching herself at Mikon and taking a swipe at her with the blazing blade. Mikon swung her sword up to block, but winced and flinched away at as flames gouted from the point of impact, almost catching on her arm. Yang dashed in, drawing their enemy's attention before she could follow up, but similarly had to duck back and away from a swipe of the flaming sword.

"What's the big deal? I thought they called you the Golden-Armed Dragon of Tailtown," Spontaneous Combustion sneered, focusing on Yang for the moment, sweeping and jabbing with her sword, forcing Yang to half-desperately block with her right arm, wincing at the little flamespurts each impact caused. "I heard sometimes your hair blazes with golden fire and your eyes glow red like Hell! And you're afraid of a little flame?!"

"Oh fuck you!" Yang snapped, ducking back and firing a blast from her armgun. Spontaneous Combustion swung her sword up a few feet from her own face, blocking the part of her not covered by her mask, the rest of the shot striking her armor harmlessly.

Then Spontaneous Combustion whirled, blocking a cut from above by Mikon, deflecting the strike and sweeping her blazing cystalslicer down and into a stab, jabbing it right through the empty coat dangling over Mikon's right side. The fox-eared woman's eyes widened as she scrambled backwards, forced to drop her sword to use her hand to yank off the burning garment.

It was all the opening the Street Demon needed, her suit letting her leap up and into the air over the other woman's head, coming down behind her. Her left arm swung out, pinning Mikon's and the hand coming to grip her throat, armored fingertips indenting the flesh.

Yang froze in place, not moving.

"Good, I guess I don't need to say it," Spontaneous Combustion murmured, grinning as she pointed the crystalslicer at Yang. "So, guess this is as far as it goes, Dragon of Tailtown."

"It's not over yet," Yang growled. "You hurt her and I'll tear you apart, fiery sword or no."

"Oh I don't need to hurt  _ her _ . Hey, here's something else I did to kill time, watched a  _ lot _ of Earth shows. There was a line in one, 'fire cannot kill a dragon'..." The Street Demon turned her hand sideways, the attachment on the back of her right forearm sliding open. "You wanna find out if that's true?"

* * *

"What if Grimm could think?"

"What?" Blake asked in confusion, raising her head from her hands.

"I'm being serious," Yang insisted, frowning. "What if Grimm could think? What if everything was the same... their desire to kill everything, the reacting to negative emotions, all of it. What if it was all the same but they could think?"

"Yang that's  _ not fair _ , people are not Grimm," Blake snapped.

"I'm not asking you about people, I'm asking you about Grimm. If everything was exactly the same, if they were still the... antithesis of life... would you still fight and kill them if they had names and thoughts and feelings?"

"I..." Blake put a hand to her face, then sighed and slumped back. "I don't know, I..." She closed her eyes. "... That's not fair. Yes I would."

"Alright. So the Street Demons aren't Grimm... but they've still decided to make themselves the antithesis of life," Yang argued. "They don't strike with purpose or meaning or fight for a cause, they just... hurt people. Kill people. They made that decision. In some ways, doesn't that make them worse? The Grimm are just doing what comes naturally, like an animal, but Street Demons... they  _ want _ to be like that."

"... So we just... kill them? Like it's nothing?" Blake whispered, looking down.

"Not like it's nothing, but... when it's them or us?" Yang murmured back, scooting over to drape her arm around Blake's shoulders. "I'm okay with it being them."

* * *

"YANG!" Mikon screamed as the miniature firebombs launched, flitting through the air and striking the floor around the blonde with explosions of flame. Yang staggered, flinging her arms in front of her face, then lurched as the floor, burned through in a matter of seconds, fell out from under her.

She dropped through the new hole in the floor, surrounded by the flaming wreckage, dimly aware that the room was also full of more Demons in oni masks and wielding katanas. She hit hard and went down, completely surrounded by the encroaching fire. She was pinned... a burning rafter had fallen across her back, and she could feel its heat starting to darken her skin, holding her down for all the rest of the fire to consume.

'This is it,' Yang Xiao Long thought. 'This is it, this is how I'm gonna die. I'm sorry Ruby, I'm sorry Dad... Blake...'

And yet at the thought of their weeping faces, at them being left without her to comfort them, fight for them, protect them, something pulsed through her, pushing away the fear. The deep instinctive reaction welled up from her soul, the essence of who she was reacting to the thought of dying in fire, surrounded by enemies, and being taken away from everyone she loved.

_ Scandroid - Phoenix (Volkor X Remix) _

Rage.

Words she had only thought in childish bragging suddenly snapped whole into her mind, solidified in her heart. She slammed her golden hand to the floor, braced her other, pushed herself up bit by bit. The blazing rafter pressing across her back groaned, and then cracked, crashing down on either side of her as she exerted pressure on it. It slid away from her as she rose up amidst the flames, which no longer felt anything but warm, her Aura shimmering across her skin, in this moment alone not yellow with the color of Blake's eyes but with something vaster, with all the flickering shades of the fire around her, her hair blazing golden and red eyes rising to fix on the suddenly terrified-seeming enemies in front of her.

She burned.

Yang leapt forward with a sound that was more roar than anything, pulling a plume of flames with her in her wake, a burst of fire accompanying her slamming her right fist forward. It smashed through the blade of a blocking katana like it wasn't there, a gout of fire expanding outwards from the impact on the Demon's chest as he went flying back and slammed into a wall, dropping limply to the floor.

One of the oni-masked Demons actually hesitated half a heartbeat, and Yang's left hand snapped out, wrapped around his neck and yanked, hurling him into two more of his comrades hard enough that the snapping of bones was audible amidst the crackling of the fire nearby. The others suddenly discovered their courage when they realized that their trapped, burning prey was now fully the predator and rushed her.

It didn't do them any good. 

Yang blocked a sword swipe with her right arm, let the blade rebound slightly with the impact and snapped her hand down, breaking the blade off seemingly effortlessly and shoving it in its former wielder's side. She dropped below the next swipe and into a leg sweep, dropping him to the floor and then flipping herself over, slamming her heel into his ribs before twirling her legs into a spin to force others back and coming to her feet, instantly driving her stiffened left hand's fingers into another's throat before following up with a punch from her, cracking his skull and sending him to the floor.

Her father had told her that she needed to control her anger. And he'd been right. Because now it was hers to control, hers to harness. It  _ was _ her. Fury made flesh. Rage made beauty. The fire tamed and wilder than ever for it.

The entire contingent of Demons soon lay battered, broken, or dead around her. Yang strode unflinchingly back into the fire behind her and then leaped back up through the hole in the ceiling, dragging a long, spiraling plume of it with her along with her crackling flame of an Aura. She landed in a crouch, knuckles slamming to the floor and leaving scorch marks, the hiss of woodsmoke still rising as she raised her head, staring down Spontaneous Combustion, both her and the restrained Mikon having gone wide-eyed at the sight of her. 

"Let go of her, you  _ bitch _ ," Yang snarled as she rose to her feet.

"This is no dragon," Mikon whispered in awe.

Narrowing her eyes, mouth twisting beneath the mesh of her mask, Spontaneous Combustion threw Mikon aside, sending her sprawling to the floor coughing. The Demon general ignited her blazing crystalslicer again and rushed in, her own electronically-augmented roar paling in comparison to the sound that issued from Yang Xiao Long.

'She is not a dragon,' Mikon repeated silently to herself, staring as golden knuckles met crimson crystal with a sound like a thousand shattering goblets inside a church bell, Yang immediately spinning to knock the flaming blade away with her right hand and slam her left shin into the other woman's side. 'This is no creature with fire in its belly... she  _ is  _ the fire... she  _ burns _ !' she thought in wonder as a fast, brutal one-two punch slammed into the armored Demon's chest and, despite all the servo-reinforcement, Spontaneous Combustion staggered back.

The winner of this fight was obvious to Mikon even as it had barely begun. She hoped it was obvious to the honorless thief as well.

Because she too would burn. But she was not, as she had claimed, the fire. This golden beauty was.

Every one of Yang's strikes was blistering, brutal, and focused, delivered with all the speed and strength of pure rage and all the precision of countless hours of training. Spontaneous Combustion reeled under it, struggling to get her sword into place, each time finding it deflected by a flash of a golden hand etched with silver flames. Her thoughts skittered like the early flickers of a fire on fresh wood as a hard left connected with the side of her head, jangling her brain even inside the protection of her helmet.

Desperate, Spontaneous Combustion channeled all the fuel to her sword she could, the red flames exploding into a pillar of flame that made even the black metal start to glow orange. She took the limiters entirely off her armor's servo-assist and drove the blazing sword down with all the strength she and the armor could muster, intending to drive it right through even that glorious golden arm even if it blocked her this time. All for naught, as it was caught and gripped firmly between incredibly strong fingertips...

... of the left hand.

"Gotcha," Yang snarled.

Her right hand snapped forward, slamming directly into the side of that oni helmeted head with all the force of her rampage, both delivered and inflicted. Spontaneous Combustion's neck seemed to stretch, servos shrieking before the impact caught up to the structure, half the mask shattering, one of the horns breaking to reveal the chrome implant beneath, as she was lifted from her feet and sent hurtling back to roll across the floor with a clatter of metal, the crystalslicer sliding away from her hand and igniting a nearby section of floor before it snuffed out, its fuel spent. 

The Demon's body twitched slightly before all the glowing red LEDs on it went out, the helmet's destruction apparently cutting power to the rest of it. The downed woman coughed once, blood spattering her lips.

"... Yeah. I'd say that's my loss," she muttered, her voice gurgling a little. "Go on. Take it." 

Mikon pushed herself to her feet, quickly moving over to take the biosupport tank containing her other and hefting it up. Yang watched the fox-tailed woman move, then turned her eyes back down to the downed Spontaneous Combustion, who was completely immobile save for the blinking of her eyes, her uncovered one starting to water in the smoke of the fire that was steadily drawing closer to her.

"You can't move without the armor, can you?" Yang said coolly.

The Street Demon general stared back at her. Then, without any emotion in her voice but calm, she replied, "No. I can't."

"... Why?" Yang's mouth twisted, her hair still burning gold, eyes blazing red. "If you know what it's like to... have something taken from you like that, how could you do it to someone else?"

Spontaneous Combustion gave a short, bitter laugh. "You don't understand anything." Her eyes narrowed, a small but sincere smile curling her bloodied lips. "For those of us who wear the names, this isn't something we do for kicks, it's  _ what we are _ . We were plagues on this world before we ever put on the masks... the mask just means we understand that. Embrace that. By embracing that I was a destroyer, I rose above what happened to make me that way... I wanted to see how far others could rise above it as well. ... I didn't expect you," she added, her voice going a bit more quiet.

Yang glanced at Mikon, who simply gazed back at her with steady, waiting eyes. Then she strode forward, yanking the sword's fuel line out of the suit's backpack and hauling Spontaneous Combustion away from the fire and up.

"What are you doing?!"

"I'm saving your miserable life, what's it look like," Yang grunted, settling the exoarmored woman over her shoulder.

"That's... ridiculous... why?"

"Maybe because I want to show you how far I can rise. Or maybe just to make you live with losing so bad." Yang shifted the Demon on her shoulder, then turned to join Mikon in rushing for the stairs. "But I guess mostly because I just feel like it."

And because when her life wasn't on the line, she needed to make herself remember that people weren't Grimm.

"Look, they're coming out!" Ilia called, pointing.

Most of the lesser Street Demons had come running out when the temple visibly caught fire, and it had taken pushing everyone's self-restraint to the limit to not go rushing in. But then they saw Yang emerging from the door with an armored figure across her shoulders, Mikon hurrying along behind her carrying the support tank.

"Yang!" Blake called as she rushed over, the blonde bending to set her burden on the sidewalk before rising to wrap her arms around her girlfriend.

"Well did you have  _ fun _ ?" Kai said with a smirk as she looked down at the apparently immobile armored woman as the rest of the group arrived.

"Oodles," Spontaneous Combustion replied flatly.

"We can have this back on you within the hour," Sakai assured Mikon with an easy smile as he took the tank from her.

Mikon nodded wearily, though her eyes were alight. "Sakai, I have much to tell you, I-" Then her face grew serious. "... Look."

Almost as one, the group turned, looking behind them. Even Kai had to admit to a shock of fear as she saw the group of Street Demons approaching. These were no punks in streetarmor and horned helmets... 

They were all generals.

Most of them were women... really more girls, judging by their builds and heights. There were a few boys and men, too, but in all a dozen of them in completely unique outfits, glowing masks of various types, and with horned implants set into their foreheads or the sides of their head. 

The group loosely surrounded them, not overtly threatening, but showing off the power suits, the tech weapons, the exotic crystalslicers. Kai recognized a few... Mad Cow, the towering bovine demihuman in power armor that was the Tailtown recruit that had apparently been able to urge the Street Demons to accept a NAP with Tailtown. Unseasonable Hurricane, the electricity slinger in his tight rubber armorsuit studded with wires and cables. And, stepping forward, the slender woman with the pointed ears and glowing red cyberhorns that Kai had last seen on War Night.

Red Tide.

She strode forward fearlessly, just sort of ambling along with her hands in her pockets, as if she weren't walking away from her escorts and towards a bunch of armed, edgy, angry people. She came to a stop about five feet in front of them, just stood there, looking at them with calm yellow eyes... eyes that dropped briefly to Spontaneous Combustion, then rose back up to them.

"What do you want for her?"

A few dozen very clever remarks popped into Kai's mind, along with a few requests that were simply over the moon. But something in her told her this offer was fleeting, and pragmatism won out. "Complete ceasefire on your part. One month."

"Done."

Kai nodded, gesturing everyone back a bit. Red Tide didn't move, instead waiting for Mad Cow to move over and gingerly pick up Spontaneous Combustion, practically cradling her as she stepped back to rejoin the others.

"Thirty days. Then it's slaughter as usual." Red Tide bobbed her head, almost pleasantly, before turning to walk off, the others turning and dispersing as if going home after a party.

All but one. Her hair was short, blue, and almost "fluffy", the cyberhorns sticking up out of it white and black with glowing blue accents, her vape mask sleek and all black with more glowing blue lines. She was wearing a black hooded jacket with a few armored pieces, and designs in white and, of course, glowing blue, and under that a white blouse and long, pale blue tie... apparently some sign of what they 'should' be wearing was in vogue among the Street Demons' top talent. Below that were tight, shiny black hotpants, and shiny black thigh-highs that went down into black and blue-glow move-assist boots. A short blade was strapped to her thigh, and a long, lightly curved sword was held sheathed in her left hand... both of them crystalslicers by the look of them.

Her blue eyes locked with Kai's red ones for a moment. For a moment both went utterly, completely still, just staring at each other.

Then the Street Demon general turned and walked away too.

"Kai?" Weiss said quietly, clearly having seen the little exchange. "Do you know her?"

"No," Kai murmured, shaking her head slowly. It was the truth, because she'd never seen the other woman before in her life.

It was also a lie because in that moment they'd known and understood who each other were intimately.

* * *

"'There are certain truths about the way of the sword, Kai. They may sound silly to you now, but they are truths all the same. On the day you are destined to start your journey as a true master of the blade, you will meet someone... another who is sharing that same day. You can choose to fight them, and likely only one of you will walk away having started their path to becoming a swordmaster. Or perhaps both will live, and forever their fates will be entwined. Or... you can refuse your destiny. You can run. And you'll be running from who you were meant to be for the rest of your life.'

"Ico's sword mysticism nonsense had the worst habit of stopping being nonsense when I least expected it.

"That girl... I knew nothing about her. Not even her jolly pirate nickname. But we were linked by fate and destiny and something deep in our hearts that pushed us to something greater. I'd understood she was like me... someone who had felt alone and worthless for a long time, until she'd found her family.

"Fuck... was that really what they were to each other? If so, we were in a lot of fucking trouble.

"I knew she was bored, and she was longing. I knew she'd found family but was still searching for meaning. And she'd found it when she looked at me.

"A part of me that had never acknowledged that I wanted to be a master of the sword had woken up when I looked in her eyes. We'd have both just probably drawn crystal and gone at it then and there if we hadn't both been surrounded by people we knew would interrupt. So the moment was there. The details would come later.

"The journey had begun."

* * *

_ DAOKO - Otogino Machi _

They were all invited back to the Great Everlasting Wish for the celebration, with Sakai promising he'd pay them in hard credits and cover their tab for the night. However he'd ensconced them at one of the tables and told them not to lose themselves to revelry  _ too _ much because he had a special surprise for them.

"So you're seriously... fireproof now?" Kai said, her eyebrows raised as she settled a forearm on her knee again, this time holding a more decently-sized sake cup.

"Hey, honey?" Yang said with a grin as one of the topless waitresses jiggled by. "You got a flame lighter on you? Cheers," she said as the waitress almost ritualistically offered her a golden lighter. The blonde flicked it open with her right hand to ignite it, then held her left fingers over the flame, gentle little flame-colored flickers of Aura surrounding where it touched before fading back to gold around the edges.

"Yang!" Blake yelped, then sighed. "Couldn't you demonstrate some other way?"

"How?" Yang said with a laugh, returning the lighter and draping an arm around her girlfriend's shoulders. "It's okay, babe, we handled it okay." She turned her head, kissing the side of Blake's forehead and whispering something to her that seemed to settle the black-haired woman further.

"So what do you think this 'special surprise' is?" Weiss asked with a glance at Kai.

"I have a feeling it's for Yang, considering. Mikon obviously had something to tell him, and they rode back together, so... huh, check it out," the redhead cut off, nodding to the entrance.

Sakai was coming back in, followed by four more Holy Dragons carrying some sort of tall, rectangular palanquin... except it looked more like a solid armored box than a luxurious carriage. The quartet set it down as Sakai turned to address the table.

"Yang Xiao Long, Mikon told me of what happened inside... that you were no dragon," he continued, smiling despite Yang's frown at those words. "That you were not merely a creature with fire inside it... that you were instead a creature  _ of _ fire. That you  _ burned _ and emerged anew, alive and stronger."

"Well... yeah, I guess that's one way to look at it," Yang admitted, starting to grin as well.

"Never before has it been the privilege of the Holy Dragons to witness a living phoenix." Sakai put his hands together and bowed to Yang. "And it would be our honor if you would allow us to commemorate the occasion in a way that honored you as well."

The edges of the armored box hissed and parted, folding down, revealing an interior largely made of flat monitor screens, a somewhat familiarly-styled type of chair settled at its center, bearing a scantily-clad, ink-covered form that sat up and then stood, tattooed bare breasts swaying a bit as she stretched.

"Kyoko?" Kai asked, jaw dropping a little.

"Whew. It's nice to get out of the temple at least once a decade, you know," the Holy Dragons' sacred tattoo master declared, stretching her arms high over her head and twisting back and forth some. "Especially for something like this."

"Um, Kai, who is this?" Weiss asked, her eyes a little wide at the appearance of a mostly naked woman with every bit of her body covered in artistic waves and dragons.

"This is Kyoko, she's, uh, she's the Holy Dragons' best tattoo artist, and she's her generation's master of ukiyo-e art," Kai explained, still a little bit shocked as Kyoko nonchalantly stepped up onto the big table and padded barefoot over to Yang.

"You're the one, right? The phoenix?" At Yang's somewhat numb nod, Kyoko bowed. "I'm Kyoko. It would be my honor to etch what you are into your skin. It will probably need to be the back to do it real justice."

"Whoa... seriously?" Yang blinked a few times... then grinned. "Right here?"

"Sure. I could make some noise about getting you on the chair-table instead, but why not? Makes it for an extra fun little memory if it's just a  _ tad _ trashy, right?" Kyoko replied, grinning beneath her vape mask, bopping her hips and shaking her index fingers briefly to the music. "Making it a memory is part of the tattoo artist's trade."

Yang thought about it...

... for all of three seconds.

"Oh hell yeah, let's do this," she said with a laugh, standing and unzipping her jacket, yanking it off as Blake grinned resignedly and rolled her eyes, blushing just a little as her girlfriend proceeded to pull her top off right there in the club too.

"Mmm, shame it won't show most of the time," Kyoko observed as she beckoned one of the Holy Dragons to hand her the case with her needle.

Yang hesitated. Then turned towards Kai and beckoned. "Lemme see your crystalslicer."

"Yang?" Ruby squeaked, eyes wide.

"Heh, sorry sis," Yang said with a twinkle in her eyes as Kai somewhat reluctantly unsheathed the crystalslicer and proffered it. "I know you've always loved my hair... I've always kept it long and wild ever since you told me you did... but maybe it really is a day of rebirth and I'm ready to try something new."

With that, ruby edge sliced through gold, neatly severing it and allowing a cascade of shimmering yellow to fall to the floor.

Yang ran her hands through her newly shortened hair a few times after handing Kai her sword back, grinning, nothing left to hide her back or her full breasts now. "So. How's it look?"

"... Fresh and new," Blake allowed, golden eyes twinkling.

Yang winked at her, then laughed as she climbed up to lay down in the center of the table. "C'mon, let's do this thing!" she declared eagerly as Kyoko moved to straddle her hips.

"You guys should enjoy the show," Kai said with a grin. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime honor, to watch Kyoko work on something like this."

"But no reason it can't be more of a show than that," Sakai said with a smirk as he snapped his fingers.

_ DAOKO - Daisuki (With Teddyloid) _

Soon girls were dancing on the edges of the table, elegantly making sure not to interrupt the work going on in the middle or to block the view of it entirely... Kai had to admit, the dancers at the Great Everlasting Wish were on a whole other level. She grinned as she ducked her head down, kissing Weiss's neck and nibbling in a way she knew was a thorough turnon, urging her lover to stop averting her gaze and instead start enjoying the show.

It was a little hard not to laugh at the sight of Ilia getting a front-to-front lapdance, though, especially since Ilia was pink from tiptoe to tailtip, even if only one of those was visible.

Blake was watching Yang's tattooing with a surprisingly intense look in her eyes... Kai couldn't help but imagine a tail thrashing intently behind her. Especially as she prowled forward up onto the table and dipped her head down, starting to kiss Yang as Kyoko's needle continued to dance over the skin of the blonde's back.

"Hope you remembered to put your headphones on the charger, Rubes," Kai murmured against Weiss's neck, Weiss actually letting out a little snort at that.

"Well duh," Ruby scoffed, lighting up a cigarette stolen from Yang's jacket and puffing on it with a slightly vengeful smirk. "Won't need 'em if I'm asleep when I hit the pillow," she added, starting to look up the Great Everlasting Wish's drink menu on her comm.

"She's riding back with you, I guess," Kai murmured as she nipped Weiss's earlobe, the former heiress giggling delightedly as she watched the dancer in front of them with sparkling blue eyes.

Weiss might have had a few cups of sake already.

Kai made a mental note that before she herself got too drunk she needed to just hire a nice people carrier or something to drive them home and come back for the bikes tomorrow. Then she got a little distracted as Blake leaned up, slipped off Kyoko's vape mask, and kissed her too.

Well that was an interesting new little twist, she thought with a grin as Weiss's jaw sagged.

"Mmn." Yang rolled her shoulders, feeling a bit of soreness but no real pain. She also hadn't bothered to put her top back on yet, which was part of that. Her breasts wobbled a bit as she stopped in front of the private back room and hit the announcement button. A moment later the door slid open, a medisurgeon far less cybered-up than Twitch blinking his more humanlike cybereyes at being face-to-tits with Yang, but only for a moment.

"Pardon," he said evenly before slipping around her.

"Wow, way to make a girl feel pretty," Yang scoffed at his back under her breath, grinning and shaking her head before she stepped in. "Hey, Mikon?"

"Yes, hello Yang." Mikon was sitting in a chair, her right side turned away, a very tired smile on her face. "Forgive me for not attending the party... between getting surgery and it not being quite my sort of scene, well."

"It's fine, everyone's having a lot of fun. I don't think it's gonna degenerate into an orgy or anything, but..." Yang laughed a little, her smile remaining, eyes turning thoughtful as she looked at Mikon. "You really think I'm a phoenix, huh?"

"I know you are," the fox-woman answered without hesitation, nodding. "I saw one woman descend into flame and death. Another rose from it to save my life and my dignity. You are the phoenix... and you know you are, else you would not have accepted Kyoko's gift."

"It does look... absolutely amazing," Yang murmured, turning around to show off the flaming bird in shades of shimmering metallic gold, surrounded by flames so well-rendered that despite being in the ancient Japanese stylistic representation, they actually looked like they might be flickering and dancing. She turned back around a bit more slowly, then nodded.  "I actually think... you might be right. We have this thing on Remnant, 'Awakening'... it's when our Aura is activated. Our soul externalized. We call it awakening because... each one of us takes a breath when it happens. A breath that you know feels like the first one you ever took... and you're born again. I... didn't think that could happen twice. But..."

"You feel like a different woman too?" Mikon prompted.

"... Yeah. Before there was this... sort of resignation to what I'd learned to do, here," Yang murmured, looking down. "I understood it, defended it, but I didn't... feel it. But now I understand. Heh... weirdly enough it made me think of a line from one of Weiss's songs."

She raised her head, eyes firm. "This life is mine. I'll defend it how I feel I need to, and live it like I think I should. And that's the only explanation I need to give anyone."

Mikon gave her own slow nod... then slowly rose to her feet and turned to face Yang.

A pair of gold dragons, identical and perfectly symmetrical, wound in a helix from just below her shoulder all the way to the back of her hand, their heads resting together, eyes closed as if in sleep, or trying to hear one another's thoughts.

"I could have been... a Holiest Dragoness," Mikon murmured, raising a hand to brush fingertips along her upper arm, tracing one dragon's spine and then the other. "But... that is not an honor that can be shared. And in truth... I would rather have never achieved all I could than to leave her behind. My other half... that is gone. Save for this."

Yang's throat tightened, and she could only nod.

"... Perhaps it is time... to think on these things," Mikon continued, her voice very soft, before reaching over for a cloth drape to settle on her shoulder. "And to decide if perhaps I should begin a new life as well."

* * *

"Mikon was a princess.

"A Neokuza princess, the same way Sakai was a prince. Not of the Holy Dragons, another clan. A clan that didn't exist anymore.

"I heard the whole story eventually. Mikon's clan had been attacked, betrayed... their home burned, their assets stolen, their people killed or scattered. And in the attack, Mikon's grandfather, her parents, and her sister... they all died.

"She was the last.

"It was her right, as the last surviving member of her clan, to bring it forth anew when she was ready. At any time she could have declared herself the head of the Heavenly Foxes and every survivor would have come, no matter where they were scattered to now, and sworn their fealty.

"But she felt her place was at Sakai's side. She wasn't in love with him, or anything like that, she'd just decided that it felt right to her... that being a Holy Dragon instead, and giving her all to making Sakai the best clan head he could be, was her purpose in life. He accepted all her little quirks and oddities without question, after all, and who can really say that about even the people we're in love with?

"Like I said before... when Mikon and I really met again, we'd be different people than we were when we sparred that day, her a master in need of a student, I a child in need of a mentor. But the empty place I had that a teacher would have filled wasn't there anymore, and Mikon had realized she too still had a lot to learn from herself.

"I wasn't a child anymore... and she was ready to be a little bit of a child again herself."

* * *

"That... was a lot of fun," Ilia murmured, leaning her head back against the headrest of the autodrive people carrier and closing her eyes.

"Everyone cut loose pretty good, yeah," Kai allowed with a chuckle, doing much the same.

"You're right, we really need to get out more and sample other places," Yang murmured, leaning forward in her seat instead. "That was... fun as hell, yeah."

"Mmhmmmm," Blake practically purred, reaching over to stroke Yang's shortened hair. "My phoenix."

"Well, we'll have more opportunities over the next month, with the ceasefire," Kai asserted. "We'll be able to cruise around the megasector without worrying about bumping into Demons the whole way."

"Heh. ... Hey, Blake, let's talk when we get home, huh?" The blonde glanced over, smiling tiredly. "For awhile, at least. Before other things."

Blake seemed a little surprised for a moment... before smiling, leaning over to kiss her lover on the ear. "Sure."

There was about a half hour of dark left when Kai rose from her bed, gently disengaging from Weiss. Not that it was difficult... her petite partner had indulged a bit more than usual and would probably be gingerly wandering down to Twitch's the next afternoon in search of a hangover remedy. 

But right now, Kai had something she needed to take care of.

She wasn't sure how she knew where to go... she supposed if she thought about it, it was obvious, but she didn't think about it. She just knew.

Kai parked her bike about a block away and headed in the direction of the Corridor, hands in her pockets. She knew what she'd see before she got there... the blue Street Demon general standing precisely at the invisible boundary between Tailtown and the sector beyond, hands in her own jacket pockets. Just waiting.

The redhead walked up to the other side of the border. "Where and when?"

"The bridge in Big Sakura Park. Six months from now."

"I have to leave before then. Four months."

The blue-haired woman tilted her head a little. "... The day before you leave. Call me." She slipped a clear card with nothing but a contact datablock on it from her pocket and proffered it.

"Alright." Kai accepted the card... then offered her hand. "Kai Sterling."

The Street Demon took her hand and shook. "Cyanide."

* * *

"Diseases. Natural disasters. Poisons.

"Yang said that Spontaneous Combustion had told her that they were plagues on the world before they ever put on the masks... that the masks just meant accepting that.

"So I had to wonder... how bad, how twisted did your life have to be, that accepting the idea that you only existed to make others suffer became some kind of salvation?"


	9. Interlude 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short collection of defining moments from the pasts of the characters.

"He's back," Ico said, rising from where she'd been sitting on her heels, meditating.

"Well la-dee-da good for him," Aer muttered, not looking up from her comm, just flicking over to the next screen.

"Aer. Please." Ico regarded the genesoldier slumped on the couch for a moment before saying, "I know he's long since stopped expecting you to act respectful when he returns, but he'll be bringing the new slaves with him and the least you can do is greet  _ them _ kindly, yes?"

"... Fuckin' fine," Aer grumbled, clipping the comm to its wristband under the loose sleeve of her shirt, shoving her hands in the similarly loose pants she was wearing and slouching along after the other slave.

Both moved to stand in the entryway of the large, richly-appointed apartment, Ico clasping her hands primly in front of herself, Aer slouched somewhat and still towering over the other woman by a few inches, despite Ico being fairly tall for a human woman.

Eventually the door slid open, revealing their returned master, and-

'What the fuck?' Aer thought, blinking.

He was holding one of 'em's fucking hand?

Kinda scrawny-looking little thing too, especially in the formless little tunics the slaver apparently preferred for 'walk out' clothes. Not quite a stick but clearly in those awkward years. Fourteen? Fifteen? Aer had a hard time judging natural-borns very well, even humans, who she'd spent all of her life around. Genemods came out of the tank at a similar level of development, but usually already at least partially optimized for their purpose.

'Red on red. S'kinda cute,' Aer thought, coming dangerously close to grinning a bit as she saw the confused-seeming girl stare around the apartment, then look at her and Ico in confusion. 'Where's the... oh there she is,' the genemod continued, that grin actually arriving as a silvery head peeked out from around the old bastard. Maybe a year younger than the redhead? Longer hair, already partway down her back.

'Pretty. She can't have been cheap, though, that silver hair and that cute little face, she's not a stick either. You better not be thinking anything, old bastard,' Aer thought, lifting her eyes to meet Carl Doonian's and seeing him scowl at her in return.

"Well hello to you too," the old bastard half-growled, making both the girls flinch.

'Well you're off to a good start,' Aer thought sourly as Ico moved forward, regal and pristine as always despite her utilitarian clothes.

"Good afternoon, Master, welcome home. Are these our new charges?"

"Yeah. Start training the redhead. Get it going today," Doonian grunted, releasing the girl's hand, the redhead ducking her head a bit as he did. "The other's just gonna be taking care of house chores from now on."

"I see. Do they have names?" Ico prompted.

'Be a man for once, you old fucker,' Aer thought, with zero hope of this actually occurring.

"The redhead's Kai. The silver's Zee."

'Fucker.'

"Well, Kai, Zee, it's very lovely to have you here, and I'll help you both get settled," Ico said, smiling at the two. Aer saw the redhead perk up in particular. Yeah, figured she'd take to Ico, that was-

"Whatta you want?" Aer asked, trying to keep her voice a bit gentle as she pursed her lips, realizing the blue-eyed one had slipped right up to her.

"... Hi," Zee murmured, staring up at Aer intently.

Aer blinked. 'Whattya lookin' at me like that for?' "Ah, yeah, hi." A bit awkwardly, she rested a hand on the girl's head and patted a few times... then made a face as her hand came away a little sticky. "Aw geez old man, did they not even wash 'em up good at that place?"

"They were supposed to," Doonian answered with a grumble.

Aer grumbled as well, turning to step towards Doonian and Kai, and almost yelped as Zee tried to move too, the big genemod almost tripping over her. "Goddaaarnit kid, don't get so fuuully underfoot!"

"Sorry!" Zee said with a wince, ducking and scrunching down.

"... It's fine. Ico, would you take her and do something about her fffilthy hair, please? It's bothering me."

"That seems wise. Master?"

"Yeah, fine, whatever," Doonian grunted with a wave of the hand.

"Come here, dear, let's get you washed up, and then I need to come back and start figuring out the right length and weight of a training sword for Kai," Ico said, beckoning with one hand, then taking one of Zee's in it to lead her off. "How about a nice braid, hm?"

"Hey, kiddo," Aer said as she leaned down in front of Kai. All curiosity, all confusion, not much in the way of fear... mindwiped slaves were like that a lot. Though the last one was rarer... meant good things, Aer hoped. "You're kind of a scrawny little twig, ain't'cha?" the genemod added, grinning a bit and reaching out to rub slightly dirty cheeks with her thumbs, pleased when she got a smile in return. "We're gonna need to start you on a muscle-building routine, work on your diet, some supplements, all that stuff."

"Just don't spend too much," Doonian muttered as he brushed past her and headed for his room.

Aer scowled, and gave the confused-seeming Kai a nudge on the head. "Hey, look around a bit, I'll be right with you." Then she followed after her owner, hissing out a soft, "Hey!" and then a louder "Hey!!" when he didn't turn.

" _ What _ ?" he demanded in an exasperated tone as he turned.

"Tell me you're not going to fucking cheap out on this kid's diet and training," she said, keeping her voice down as she looked the old bastard in the eye. "Like you're starting to cheap out on everything else."

"I told you, the point of buying them cheap and training them up is to  _ not _ spend a lot of money on them," he muttered back.

"Uh-huh. And what'd the one with silver hair, blue eyes, and who already has nice legs cost you, huh? To do  _ housework _ ? How much you spend, old man?"

"Be careful, Aer," Doonian growled back.

"Why. Did. You. Buy. Her?" Aer demanded, golden eyes flashing.

He didn't budge an inch, just staring back at her. "Would you rather I left her there for someone else to buy?"

She flinched back as if he'd flicked her on the forehead.

"S'what I thought. DON'T TOUCH THOSE!" he suddenly snapped.

Kai jumped back from the bookshelf and cringed down a little. "I'm sorry!"

"You're not allowed to touch those. Gonna add an order later," Doonian muttered, glaring at her.

"Fucking hell, Carl, I miss Matani too, but that's uncalled for," Aer grumbled, looking aside.

"You just shut the fuck up. Start training her. Leave me the fuck alone," he added before stalking into his study and slamming the door.

"Fucker." Aer heaved in a deep breath, then grinned just a bit as she turned and walked back over to Kai. Made herself not stop when the kid flinched, instead just rubbed her head a bit. "It's fine, kid. He's just... possessive... about some stuff. Hey, do you remember how to read?"

Kai slowly shook her head.

"Well let's have a lesson, see if it comes back to you. He didn't say where I had to start training, and you need to know how to fuckin' read. So let's seeeee..." Aer ran a fingertip down the books that had belonged to one of their late colleagues, and then pulled one down. "Here we go, Greek mythology. C'mere."

"What's Greek? ... What's mythology?" the skinny redhead asked, her nose wrinkling as she followed Aer to the couch.

"Greekland is I guess a place on Earth. Been to Earth a lot but never Greekland. But apparently they had a loooot of wild stories, so let's see." Aer flipped through the book at random as Kai sat down next to her. "And mythology's basically a bunch of entertaining bullshit. Here we go. These are all the filler characters, I guess, you can tell 'cause of where they are in the book," she added, as if imparting important confidential information.

"Ohhhhh." Kai nodded solemnly, as if having received important confidential information.

"Okay, let's see now. 'Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus and Dione, and wife of the king of Thebes...'"

Aer paused. Huh. Nice name.

* * *

"Grandfather I don't understand, what happened to our home?"

"Mikon, I cannot explain right now," the white-haired man answered, turning steady, if somewhat faded, eyes towards her, his tail lashing in agitation. "I need you and Keikon to just be strong right now, but also silent."

"Yes grandfather," the twins replied in unison, ducking their heads obediently and reaching to clasp each other's hands.

"This is a bad idea, we'll look weak in front of the other clans," Mikon's mother added in a murmur, looking as if she very much wanted to stab the elevator button again to urge it on.

"Right now we cannot afford to consider anything but the immediate protection of the family," grandfather replied in a tone that made both Mikon and Keikon's ears lay down and tails droop. "So we will get off-planet, and if necessary reform the Heavenly Foxes later."

"We're here," Mikon's father murmured, drawing a gun from inside his jacket. 

Mikon found herself very afraid, and pressed herself closer to her sister. But as the doors opened she saw nothing but a skyspeeder, open and waiting for them. She wondered if that was a good thing or bad thing, but all the adults seemed relieved so she was relieved too. The family made their way towards it, Mikon's father keeping a watchful eye.

And then the world exploded. Mikon's ears were ringing, both sets of them, as she slammed into the rooftop, stunned. And yet something sliced through the haze and she reached out as someone connected in her soul as much as any physical sense went by her and over the edge. "Keikon!"

Keikon screamed as she fell, jerking to a halt and smacking against the side of the monolith building, Mikon's right hand gripping her left wrist tightly. 

"Nnnnh... nnnnnh!" Mikon gritted her teeth, trying to haul back with all the strength in her tiny body, her ears laid low and tail thrashing. But she hurt all over, and she was feeling weak, and her sister was heavy. But even as she thought that, she firmed up her grip, determined not to let go until help came. Mother or Father or Grandfather would surely come rushing over any moment now!

And then she saw the white skyspeeder and her heart dropped. Fear sent her blood racing cold through her veins as the side panel opened, men aiming guns at them.

"Drop your sister, girl!" one of them called in an accent she'd been taught was the mark of pure evil. "Drop her and we'll let  _ you _ live!"

"NO!" she snapped back instantly.

"Mikon!" Keikon cried desperately.

"Do it! You can't hold her up anyway, girl! Will you die for nothing?!"

Mikon braced her left hand against the edge of the roof, her only reply a scream of determination and pain as she tried to haul her sister back from oblivion.

"Mikon," her twin whispered. "I love you."

"Keikon! Hold on, there's hope, Keikon!"

And then the guns chattered. And Mikon could only scream as their arms were torn to pieces, Keikon dropping away from her and out of sight.

She slumped to the rooftop, and at nine years old she numbly made her peace with the fact that her entire family was dead and she was about to join them. She barely even processed the sound of bullets striking armor, the skyspeeder roaring away, and being bundled carefully into someone's arms.

"It is difficult. She is at an age where she grows so fast. We will be having to constantly monitor the cybernetic hookup, to make sure it causes no problems as her body grows around it."

"Mm. Every month?"

"Two weeks would be best."

Mikon stared at the ceiling, acting as if she were completely gone, as if she were not listening to them. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be alive anymore.

Grandfather was dead.

Mother was dead. 

Father was dead.

Keikon was dead... that must mean she was dead. How could she live without Keikon? The other half of her. The other  _ her _ . But gone... gone forever... nothing left... all of it gone. She wanted to be gone too.

She ignored the boy her own age as he stood on tiptoe to look down at her on the bed, turning his head back and forth curiously as if she were some new kitten his father had brought home. Let him look. She did not care. What did it matter.

Just let her die.

"Just to be clear, we will be talking about replacing a prosthetic at least once a year. Perhaps cheaper ones?"

"I will see to your punishment later for even suggesting such a thing."

"... Of course, Surai-sama, I will certainly deserve it. It is just... this is a commitment of many years, for you and for her, for someone who is effectively a rival clan leader."

"Jikon died still with honor debt I held him. His grandchild is not my rival, she is my honored charge. Understood?"

"Of course, sir, I shall instead contact an arm-artist at once, and-"

"What about," the boy who was looking at her said. "Her sister's arm?"

"... What?"

"... Hm. Could it be done?"

"I... suppose, yes. Admittedly the right side of... the other's body that we recovered from the lower level was one of the only things that was not damaged. And since they were one-egg twins, it means she would not have nearly the difficulties with-"

"Yes," Mikon said immediately, speaking for the first time since she'd been taken off the roof. "Please. That is what I wish."

"... Very well, Mikon," a man her father's age, who looked very much like the boy, said as he leaned over to smile down at her. "If you like Sakai's idea, that's what we'll do."

* * *

"Oh," Reese Chloris said quietly.

"It's just... important for you to understand, Reese," the doctor murmured with practiced gentleness. "With your body's hormone imbalance, any pregnancy would almost certainly result in a miscarriage. And with your allergies, you just... need to be careful. And... ... adjust your expectations accordingly. Okay?"

"Yeah. Okay," she said, voice a bit flat as she nodded, trying not to pay too much attention to her mother's attempts to muffle her sobs beside her. "I mean... not exactly on my list anyway, so..." She shrugged a little, then rose to her feet. "We done?"

"If you need to talk to somebody-"

"Iiiii'm sure Mom and Dad have a rolodex full of suggestions, thanks," Reese shot back, trying for breezy and coming out a bit bitter.

Oh fuckin' well.

"Reese... Reese I'm so sorry," June Chloris murmured in the hall, trying to wipe her cheeks.

"... Whatever." Reese shrugged again. "I didn't wanna have kids anyway."

"Oh Reese, honey, you're thirteen, you don't know tha-"

"Well I  _ fuckin' _ know it now don't I?!" Reese snapped, whipping her head towards her mother, then wincing and looking down, rubbing her face with both hands. "... Sorry."

June sniffled hard, then nodded, murmuring, "It's alright," even as she trembled a little.

'Fuck it, you're not sad for me, you're sad for you,' Reese thought bitterly on the ride home. 'The last thing you were hoping I could do all girly for you, give you grandbabies, and I fucked that up too, huh?'

She didn't even notice that she'd started crying until her mother pulled over and drew her into a hug.

* * *

Yang Xiao Long stormed into the house, forced herself not to throw the yellow-lacquered wooden staff to the floor in frustration. Instead leaned it against the wall. "I'm home," she called, annoyed even further at how annoyed her voice sounded. She headed for the stairs, trying to get there before her father came in.

But she didn't quite make it. "Hey, honey, how was your training se-" Yang winced a little as a little bit of horror came over his eyes. "Yang, your nose!"

"It's fine, it's not broken or anything, I'm just gonna go get cleaned up before Ruby gets home," Yang quickly said, turning her head away to hide the blood still smeared across her lower face before she hurried up the stairs.

Taiyang stared after her, then turned at the sound of the door opening and closing again. "Qrow, what happened?"

"Ahhh, she smacked herself in the face with it again," Qrow said with a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. "Tried to shift with a block and knocked herself right in the nose." He turned, picking up the yellow wood staff and eyeing part of it near the middle that still had a small smear of blood on it. "This thing's given her more bruises than me and her other combat instructors combined."

"Dammit," Taiyang muttered, folding his arms over his chest.

"... It's not the right weapon for her, Tai," Qrow said after a moment, giving the staff a few small tosses in his hand to grip it closer to the center.

"Uh-huh. And you know why she's using it, or you'd be telling her and not me," the blonde man snorted softly.

"... You're right," Qrow answered with a shrug. "I mean of course you're right. But  _ someone _ needs to tell her. She's got four more years of training before the exam, and those are an important four years. You want it to be me or you?"

Taiyang was silent as he thought it over. "It really ought to be me," he said after a while.

"Right. So I'll do it."

"Qrow," Taiyang said with a sigh.

"Look. I'm her uncle... it's a little easier for me to hurt her feelings and back off than you, right?" Qrow shrugged. "Besides... I think maybe it'll be better if this one doesn't come from a parent."

'You're their father too,' was almost on Taiyang's lips.

But the thought was too raw, and honestly it hurt too much. Admitting that he hadn't been able to shoulder up entirely on his own, be all the parent his girls needed. So after a moment he just nodded, and stepped back to let Qrow head up the stairs.

"Knock knock," the red-eyed man declared, rapping his knuckles on the door of Yang's room. "You decent?"

"Yup," came the less enthusiastic reply than usual.

Qrow pushed open the door, ambled over to the bed, and sat down beside where Yang was flumped and looking out her window. "Hey. So. We needa talk about this," he said, deciding to be direct, looking at the staff in his hand.

"It was just another screwup, I'll get the hang of it," Yang said with a shrug.

"... Yang, you've got a boxer's instincts. You pulled your hands back too much because you wanted to guard with your forearms, not this," Qrow asserted, lifting the staff a bit. "Your hand-to-hand is, bar none, the best out of  _ anyone _ in your class. It's time for you to start focusing on that."

Yang said nothing. For long minutes she just sat there, staring out the window at the forest, the toes of her sneakers rubbing against the floor.

"So that's just it then," she said finally. "There's nothing of her in me."

"Hey. That's just not true at all, okay?" Qrow set the staff aside and draped an arm around Yang's shoulders. "The way you look after others? The way you take care of Ruby? That is  _ all _ Summer, all day. Sure a little of it's Tai too," Qrow allowed, bobbing his head. "But you know who you are, more than anyone else?"

Yang turned her head toward him, looking somewhere between afraid and hopeful of what he might say.

"You're you." Qrow tapped her on the shoulder, grinning. "You've got a lot of Tai, sure, and some of Summer." He decided not to add that every so often, in her smirk or her scowl or the way she folded her arms, he saw a fair bit of Raven too. "But the person I see most of in there is Yang Xiao Long. Someone all her own, not just bits and pieces of others. And it's time for you to embrace that in how you fight."

Yang was quiet for a little while, before letting out a long sigh, tears sliding down her cheeks. "I just... miss her."

"Me too, kid." Qrow drew her into a hug, resting a hand on the back of her head as he closed his eyes. Dusty old crows didn't cry. "Me too."

* * *

"Blake, this is Adam Taurus. Adam, Blake Belladonna."

"It's... very nice to meet you," Blake murmured, trying not to make it too obvious her breath had been taken away a little by the handsome masked man.

"You as well," Adam replied, putting just a bit of extra warmth into his voice, saw the bit of color that put on Blake's cheeks. "I've heard a lot of good things about you. Your dedication was spoken of to me very highly."

"Yes, well... I'm ready to start doing more than just going to protests and collecting petitions," Blake asserted firmly, straightening up to her full, not particularly striking height. "I'm ready to really be in this fight, all the way."

"Good. Glad to hear it. Well I think I can handle your training personally... bladeplay and shooting are both my specialties, after all. So we'll start working you up a weapon that can do both right away," Adam said genially, letting his shoulders roll and his hips shift as he slid around beside her.

"Right. Yes. Those are yours, right?" Blake's eyes wandered to the weapon at his hip. "Did you name them, like a Huntsman?"

"I did," Adam 'admitted', smiling as he leaned in, voice turning just a bit sensual as he added, "I call them Blush... and Wilt."

Though there was nothing that was necessarily overtly sexual about the names, Blake felt a little shiver run through her at the way he said them.

"Something like this might be a little much for you right now... we'll get you something more fitting, hm? Something light and... pretty."

"Y-yes, alright!"

A more mature woman would probably have seen Adam's seduction for the unsubtle, brazen thing that it was. And indeed, Sienna Khan was watching with slightly pursed lips and narrowed eyes. But Blake was fifteen, and Adam was everything she'd ever dreamed of the fight for Faunus equality being. Striking, dashing, dramatic, exciting, and scary in what seemed like a thrilling way.

It was very easy for him to draw her in and be what she wanted him to be. It was, after all, what he thought of himself too.

* * *

"'All I do is make everyone suffer.' You wrote those words on the forum, right?"

"... Yes," Michiko murmured, turning her head aside. Her hands clenched on the arms of her wheelchair... a veritable antique-style one, barely even powered. She was somehow both frightened and ashamed to look on the small, slight figure standing in front of her holding a datapad, red chrome cyberhorns emerging from amidst long white hair, the black and red school uniform she wore like a mocking joke somehow, especially with the red collar and intimidating vape mask.

"Yeah, I can see that. A family of shrine workers, then suddenly one day, wiring goes haywire and poof, up in smoke. Grandpa, daddy, mommy, all crisped, and you're left laying there with a rafter breaking your back. Ironically protected you from the rest of the debris even as it put burns over most of your body, then they pull you out and you have the audacity to survive."

The young-seeming woman crossed to the bed and hopped up to sit on it, swinging her saddle shoe covered feet back and forth a bit. "No money for anything but lifesaving treatment, no cyber implants. Just a cheap chair and your grandmother slowly working herself to death trying to take care of you and work a data entry job instead of the rituals and blessings she's been doing her whole life."

"... Did you come here to kill me?" Michiko asked, finally raising her head and looking at the other girl.

Her voice sounded a bit hopeful.

"I could do that. If that's  _ really _ what you want. But it wasn't quite what I had in mind." She hopped down again, the door of Michiko's room opening again, a taller girl that looked like she could be the smaller one's older sister, even down to a similar styling of the cyberhorns and outfit, stepped in, carrying something in her hands. 

"You see, Michiko, you already know what you are. You said it yourself, and you're right... you're a plague. Whatever it was that actually happened, everyone blames you for the fire. Your grandmother resents you for forcing this on her. It's all written in your own journals, your other postings. You're a calamity, a plague, a curse. And yet..."

The girl suddenly produced a precision cutter that, in better times, Michiko had used to cut paper and cloth to make charms with. "This was sitting in your bedside drawer. Unused. Untainted. So, it seems that despite just making everyone suffer... you still want to live."

"... I..." Michiko closed her eyes.

"You know what you are. Still you live. Maybe it's time to realize that you're  _ okay _ with being a calamity. Maybe it's time to realize that's what you were meant to be... what you should be. Embrace it. Live it. Be the calamity. Join with others like yourself."

"Accept what you are, and you only need tell us what you wish," the other masked girl joined in. "That is our only goal. That is all we do. We try to make each other's dreams come true... calamities loving calamities."

Slowly, Michiko nodded. She felt the carbon fiber helmet the taller one had been carrying slide over her head, fix into place.

"Now. Tell us what it is you wish."

Spontaneous Combustion opened her eyes. "I want to test others... in  _ fire _ ."


	10. Up All Night To Get Lucky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai and her crew finish up their last job of the night in a really bad mood, and Kai decides that absolutely nothing will improve it but pizza from a very specific place she's heard about. A string of these coincidences leads to someone recognizing Yang, and a reunion-that's-not with a familiar stranger.

April 11, 2993, 05:47 (Local Makarzia time)

"Go down you mother _ fucker _ !" Kai snapped, the charged electrorod in her hand crackling as she snapped it against the inside of the juicer's forearm.

It didn't really do her any good though. His swing still followed through even as his muscles twitched and shuddered, smashing into her and knocking her back in a tumble.

"I thought I told you to cut the damn feeding tubes!" Kai snapped aside at Blake, who was lying curled up a bit around her stomach.

"I  _ did _ !" the feline Faunus snapped back.

"It! Didn't! Help!" Ilia grunted from where she was literally standing on the big cyborg's back, looking like a particularly odd rodeo rider with her stunner whip around his throat as she leaned back on it.

"Fuck me."

Yang ducked and weaved through the big man's swings. He was annoyingly fast for someone who had to be about 600 lbs. of juiced-up muscle at the moment, more or less the cybernetic joints, his arms and legs bulging rather grotesquely around them. She overcharged her stun knuckles and rammed them right into his stomach, actually making the huge man lurch... right before he swung down and slammed his forehead directly into hers.

"FUCK!" Yang yelped as she was sent flying backward, her sunglasses spinning off in two separate directions.

"Alright that fuckin' does it," Kai growled as she got up.  _ Ruby, take the shot. _

A report from the distance rang out, impacting with a loud  **PANG** as one of the big man's knees twisted and buckled, dropping him down to it. Kai ran up and jumped, swinging the electrorod to smash it across his head as Ilia dropped down, releasing one end of her whip and giving him a shock. The big man jerked and twitched, his arm flying up and catching Kai again.

This time she went flying backward and crashed into a variablesheet machine, toppling it backwards and winding up laying slouched into the opening inside, the broken plastiglass luckily not piercing her coat. "... Is he down?" she asked a bit distantly.

"He's down," Blake muttered as she got to her own feet.

"Fuckin' juicers tryin' out fuckin' experimental blends from Earth mixed with their usual shit," Kai muttered as she struggled to get up... then sighed, holding up both hands. "Help plz."

Yang made her way over, grabbing one of those and hauling Kai out of the machine... only for one of her feet to catch on a piece of plastiglass, slip out from under her, and almost drop her on her face, if Yang hadn't still been holding her hand.

"... Fuck it. We're going for pizza."

"I'm struggling to remember the last time we saw the sun rise," Blake commented dryly as they rode their cycles across streets that were slowly starting to grow busier with people carriers, some of their passengers giving the pack of obvious night creatures out in early daylight odd looks.

"And we're going most of the way across the megasector for pizza  _ why _ ?" Yang asked drolly.

"Because I heard it is legit the best pizza in the megasector, because we're taking tonight off, and because  _ fuck _ that last job," Kai muttered, rolling her shoulders. "Even healed up I'm still sore from that shit. It didn't even pay that fucking well."

"There  _ was _ a pay penalty if we did any actual damage," Ilia noted morosely.

"Which is why fuck ever working for that guy again, he wants someone to make sure he doesn't kill anyone if he flips his shit on a new mixture he can subcontract with the Transcendants. Hey! HEY!" Kai pulled one of her guns and turned on her seat, ramping up the volume of her helmet speakers as she pointed the weapon slightly to the side of the driver behind them. "There's still a little purple in the sky, motherfucker, you honk that horn again and say goodbye to your fuckin' windshield!"

"Dear, is something the matter?" Weiss asked in a drolly pleasant tone.

"I don't even fuckin' know," the redhead grumbled as she reupholstered her gun and opened the throttle a little as traffic opened up ahead of them. "Just in a bad fuckin' mood and feel like the only thing that'll fix it is pizza from this one goddamn place."

" _ You're _ in a bad fuckin' mood, my damn shades got smashed," Yang threw in. "Now I've actually gotta  _ pay _ for new ones."

"I mean if you're gonna be  _ good _ ," Kai scoffed.

"She's going to be," Blake said firmly.

"Hey Blaaaaake... how's the Leeeaf?" Kai teased in vengeance.

"The Leaf tree is coming along very well, thank you," the black-haired woman said primly. "I am learning to make completely  _ natural _ teas and wraps with it."

'A rolled pillar is completely natural too,' the redhead thought with a little snort to herself. And she could have used one right then. 'Fuck it, I'll keep an eye out for a Transcendant myself, if Nightbird's not gonna unclench that far yet.'

"Is that what that smell coming from you guys' apartment was?" Ruby asked as they exited off the speedway and made their way along the proper lane like a bunch of taxpayers.

"That was the soap. It... didn't work out so well."

"I used a bar and I saw all colors inverted for like a half hour that's how not-well it worked out," Yang snorted, Blake looking like she'd have liked to smack her if they weren't riding speedercycles at the moment.

"It was supposed to just be relaxing!"

"Well it  _ wasn't _ ."

"You're all the ones that wanted me to start experimenting with the damn thing, now I am and it's just bitch bitch bitch," Blake grumbled as they wound through the slightly less crowded streets.

"Inverted colors. Half. An. Hour."

"You stopped complaining when I gave you something fun to look at!"

"Well I never complain when you show me  _ that _ ."

"I'm so glad we're all involved in this relationship so intimately," Ruby muttered from her own cycle, making Ilia giggle.

Eventually the group strolled into the pizza place Kai had heard about. She was a little disappointed that it wasn't  _ the _ pizza place that seemed to crop up all over the multiverse... the walls were red brick, sure, but the rest of it was pure hipster. Oh well, who cared. The waiters looked a little nervous to see a bunch of night creatures come in at seven in the morning, but perhaps they were also at least a little used to a bunch of tired, slightly strung-out looking examples of the species wandering in first thing.

"Grape soda. And we're getting one of the, whatzit... the 'meatsplosion tablecloth'," Kai muttered as she dropped into a chair at the table. The others gave their own drink orders, sticking to the nonalcoholic menu in respect for the daytimer sensibilities as much as the fact they had a long ride home after.

"Feeling any better?" Weiss asked, tugging Kai's hood down and stroking a hand over her hair.

"Yeah. Some. Dunno what got such a bug up my ass," Kai muttered, rubbing her face with both hands. "Was like there was this almost sick feeling in my stomach that wasn't gonna be right until I ate here."

"Not sure whether that says good things or bad things for this place," Yang commented, reaching up to adjust her sunglasses and almost poking herself in the eye before she remembered they were laying in two halves in a street somewhere. "... Dammit."

"Let's just... eat, and go home, and we're taking tonight off like I said," Kai asserted, sweeping her hands apart just a bit. "Taking a damn night. In fact let's do something fun, what do we wanna do?"

"We could go to the Great Everlasting Wish again?" Ruby suggested as she finagled out her cig pack and tapped one out, tucking it behind her ear. "I like their music."

"The Glowworm?" Ilia suggested. "Or is the Glowworm too much like work?"

"Yeah I don't wanna get hit up by someone looking for a 'really need this tonight' job if we go to the Glowworm," Kai muttered, propping her cheek on one hand and twiddling a finger of the other around on the table. "The Wish is a maybe."

"Jita told me about this new place called 'Ultrapink', it's a new lesbian club just outside of the Kuzahood," Yang noted thoughtfully, sipping at her strawberry soda. "She said she wanted to go with us if we went though."

"That sounds decent. Any objections to Ultrapink and hanging with Jita?" Kai offered up to the group, getting back only assent. "Okay cool."

It actually wasn't that long before their pizza arrived... carried by two waiters. It was just slightly smaller than the table, leaving no space for plates, and covered with an array of meats both authentic and artificially textured. "Fuckin' hell," Kai said happily as she finagled out a slice that was probably as much pizza as would have been on a 'small' by itself.

"When they say 'tablecloth' I guess they're not kidding," Blake noted dryly, seeming to be taking a moment to resolve herself to what they were all about to do.

"Yeah well everybody eat all you can, a carryout box on a speedercycle is a pain, especially the box we'd need for this damn thing. Skol."

"Man, I feel like after a Solstice meal," Yang groaned happily, sitting back.

"I can't believe we managed to finish that whole thing," Blake said with a half-delirious laugh, propping her head up in both hands.

"I think you mean  _ Ruby _ finished most of it," Ilia said dryly, shooting her friend an amused look.

"I'm a growing girl! Pizza is as good as milk! Probably!"

Kai laughed a bit, reaching for her hardpack and flicking it open, frowning at the sight of its emptiness. "Shit."

"Here honey," Weiss said with a grin, holding out her fingers with a blue cigarette tucked between them.

"Literally best girl," Kai murmured warmly, leaning down and letting her lips brush Weiss's fingers as she took the last drag off the blueberry cigarette. Then she exhaled through her nose, satisfied. "Alright, I'mma pay and then let's hit up the corner store before we head back, may as well stock up on decent smokes while we're in the taxpayer part of town. Weiss, you got any hard creds on you?"

"Just a large bill, but that's fine, I'll break it."

"It really is kind of a kick to be out in the morning after all this time," Yang mused as she walked along, trailing the back of the group to apparently make the travel stretch a bit.

Kai had to admit, daylight suited Yang more than neon glow, the way it made her shortish hair turn gold and the purple of her eyes really bright. Phoenix or not, she was apparently still a sunny dragon.

"Well don't get used to it, we still work nights after all," Kai noted, as she strolled along at the head of the group, Weiss at her side. She glanced aside, felt a brief sympathy pang at seeing a figure in a cheap brown cloth improvised cloak, huddled tight in it in the alleyway. Before she could think of doing anything, Weiss drew out a few small credbills she'd gotten from breaking the large bill to pay for cigs, knowing at this point how some Makarzian homeless could be about being approached, tossed them forward into the figure's lap. There was a little start in the bundled figure, as if they'd been half asleep, before the hood lowered, then turned towards them.

"Hey, good luck," Yang added with a glance over as she passed.

A moment later Blake sniffed, then frowned a little and stopped to turn. "Guys?"

The group turned to find that the cloaked figure had risen and was shuffling after them unsteadily on rotten boots and with a heavy limp in one leg. 

"Hm?" Yang turned as well, noticing the raggedly-cloaked figure limping towards her in particular. Kai could see a brief look of annoyance cross her face, mingled with pity... before it gentled as she spotted how the left side of the cloak hung a bit emptier than the right side. "Hey, s'up? You need some water or something?" she asked, keeping her voice friendly.

The figure hesitated, then stepped closer, right foot jerking a bit in its movements, shredded, half-rotten boots almost leaking rainwater. Slowly, its right hand emerged from the folds of the tattered brown cloth, dirty and trembling a little as it stretched towards Yang's eyes.

"Hey, c'mon man," Yang murmured, clearly still trying to be sympathetic and gentle as she reached up to take an easy but firm grip on the vagrant's wrist to stop them... then wincing as the figure started trembling violently. "Whoa, whoa, easy!"

Blake's nose had wrinkled again as the cloaked figure drew nearer, her more sensitive sense of smell no doubt a bit overwhelmed by the heavy body odor and stench of rain-soaked cloth. Then her eyes widened, nostrils flaring a bit more, and she quickly stepped forward, her own hands reaching towards the cloak's hood. At the figure flinching away, she drew her hands back a little. "Easy. It's okay," she said softly. "I'm not going to hurt you, it's alright."

After a second the figure went still, and Blake carefully touched the hood, tugging it down... and letting out a soft hiss. "Oh my god."

"Holy  _ shit _ ," Kai added, staring. Not because of the hair that looked like it had been sawed off short with something jagged, the scars on the face or broken-out skin, or the heavy bags under the eyes. But because of the red hair the same color as hers, and the fact that despite one eye being cloudy with infection, the other was still the same distinctive green she'd seen in numerous vids and pictures.

"Pyrrha?" Ruby squeaked, silver eyes going wide as she clapped both hands over her mouth.

Those green eyes turned, didn't quite focus, a little bit empty. Cracked, slightly bloody lips opened and closed for a moment, before the faintest rasp of a voice, like a soft-soled shoe over rough cement, issued forth.

"Ru... by...?"

Ruby Rose gently guided the redhead through the smaller room. "Okay, Pyrrha, we're gonna have a doctor look at you, but it's better if you get cleaned up first. I'm gonna help, okay?"

Pyrrha Nikos stared at her as if not quite comprehending, but after a few seconds gave a small nod. She showed no particular resistance as Ruby untied the filthy improvised cloak and tugged it off, though she made a soft whine low in her throat as it was thrown into a nearby trash bin, her hand raising and body shifting as if to go after it.

"No, no, it's okay, w-we'll get you a new one, okay?" Ruby assured her, gently laying her hands on Pyrrha's middle. "We'll get you another, alright?"

"... okay..." Pyrrha rasped distantly, slumping in place.

Ruby winced a little again as she took in the state of Pyrrha's clothes. They were clearly the same ones she'd been wearing at Beacon, but however long she'd spent on the Makarzian streets had not been kind to them. The metal armor was long gone, probably fallen off as the garments deteriorated, Pyrrha not in her right mind enough to keep them. The armorweave portions layered under the leather were really all that was keeping them together, and a few light tugs separated those.

Her heart ached to see how starkly Pyrrha's ribs stood out, even her hips far too defined. There were sources of food on Makarzia that were accessible even to those who had effectively nothing, but from the looks of it Pyrrha simply had not thought to seek out anything to eat save but rarely. Her body was coated in grime and more broken-out places, and a fair number of other little nicks and scars.

The worst though were her leg and... arm. There was still a visible hole not far above her heel, the skin around it dark and black, as was the puckered, smelly area where her left arm ended a few inches above where her elbow had been.

Taking a deep breath and trying not to flinch, Ruby instead quickly stripped out of her own clothes, Pyrrha staring at her in confusion as she did. "Okay, let's just step over here under the shower, alright? ... Remember showers?" she tried, attempting some bit of cheer, only to grimace when the other woman stared at the showerhead as if she might actually not.

Pyrrha flinched as the water came on, but then slumped, not moving, just staring down as black water rushed off her body and pooled around her feet before trickling into the drain. Concentrating on being as gentle as possible, Ruby poured the special soap Twitch had told her to use into her palms and began helping clear some of the grime off.

"Okay, close your eyes!" she chirped, trying for cheer again, and feeling just a bit heartened when Pyrrha actually did close her eyes. She squirted more of the soap onto her hands, then began rubbing them through the short, hacked-at red hair... and trying not to shudder at the feel of scabs under her fingers, or the way the water started coming away crimson as well as black.

"... Ruby?" Pyrrha rasped again suddenly, as if trying to confirm that was actually who she was talking to, eyes opening and trying to focus on the smaller woman.

"Yeah, Pyrrha?" the small woman answered, trying to make it sound like it wasn't too big of a deal.

"... Am I..." The redhead seemed to search for the word for long moments, before finally finishing, "... dead?"

Shivering just a little, Ruby took a deep breath, then smiled. Made herself believe it, finally, even though in some ways the evidence in front of her eyes made it a slightly unkind truth. "No, Pyrrha, you're not dead. You're alive."

"... I feel dead," Pyrrha whispered, closing her eyes again.

"Here we go, all clean!" Ruby chirped as she led the limping Pyrrha out of the cleanup area, the famous Huntress apparently struggling to keep a towel wrapped around her middle with just her right hand, Ruby having donned a set of medical scrubs in lieu of climbing back into her entire outfit.

Yang stepped forward, gently reaching out, pausing briefly when Pyrrha flinched but then tugging here and there. "Like this. Get it held under there like that, then tug and tuck with your hand. There y'go."

"J-just have her lay d-down on-" Twitch said as she shuffled from around the corner, before she flinched, her cheek jumping a few times as Pyrrha's eyes widened and she tried to go scrambling backward.

"Whoa, whoa, easy Pyrrha!" Ruby rushed to say, trying to steady the other woman. "That's just Twitch, she's a friend!"

"Pyrrha," Blake said, keeping her voice calm and soothing, the green-eyed woman staring at her as if barely comprehending. "I know Twitch looks different than what you're used to. But she's a very good person. She's going to help you. Okay?"

"Just go ahead and get up here, hm?" Weiss added, patting the examination table. "Promise when it's done you'll feel much better."

That did seem to sink in through the wounded Huntress's addled head, and she slowly made her way over to the table. Weiss and Yang both had to help her up, and she still trembled a little as Twitch approached, Ruby stepping in and stroking her hair soothingly. Pyrrha looked like she might scream when one of the medical arms came down towards her neck. But practically the moment the needle was in she went limp, eyes closing and body sagging.

"Fuck," Yang whispered, shaking her head, then moving forward to help lift the unconscious woman briefly and let Twitch tug the towel off of her.

"Oh god dammit," Ruby sighed as she looked at her palm, seeing it smeared with blood.

"H-here," Twitch said, one of her medilimbs reaching over and plucking a tube from a nearby counter and handing it to Ruby. "R-rub this into her scalp while I l-look her over."

"How the hell long you think she's been on the streets?" Kai muttered, scowling at the sight of how her ribs stuck out.

"Long enough for this to happen," Ruby said tiredly, holding up a piece of Pyrrha's leather outfit to Kai before smearing the gel from the tube on her hands and starting to work it through the gnarled crimson locks in front of her.

Kai took it and examined the level of rot. Makarzian rain did accelerate this sort of thing to anything that hadn't been properly treated, but, "Shit. I'd bet almost a year."

"A whole  _ year _ like that?" Blake whispered.

"Whatever happened to her, couple it with the dimensional dysmorphia of her arrival, she was probably in a daze for... fuck, could've been weeks," Kai commented as Twitch looked Pyrrha over, gently pressing her eyelids open one at a time. "And by then, add in her being hungry, probably drinking bad water more than half the time, whatever side effects from her injuries, and it just... kept going."

For a little while everyone was silent, the only sound in the room the clicking of Twitch's prosthetics and the soft whir of her cybereyes. Finally, though, the medisurgeon spoke up. "S-so good news and b-b-bad news."

"At least there's some good news. What's that?"

"I-it's actually more good than b-b-bad, depending h-how you w-weigh it," Twitch said as she brought a cyberarm in to spray Pyrrha's wrist, then used another to slide over a mount, starting to prep a bag and needle with others as she ran her fingertips along the redhead's skin to find a vein. "She's m-malnourished and her stomach, liver, and kidneys are p-p-probably hurting, but I can get most of that fixed up with a f-few d-drips. S-same with her rashes, the dr-drip and some c-cream will take care of it. Eye infection sh-should clear up in a few days, th-thr-throat infection too."

"The leg?" Kai prompted.

"N-n-n-not t-too bad actually. Th-the wounds l-look like they were c-c-c-cauterized when they were m-made, so she didn't d-d-die of infection. I'll have to cut some of the d-dead skin and muscle off b-but I can r-rebuild and p-put her in an en-encasement. She'll p-p-probably never have f-feeling in her heel and lower c-calf again, but it's t-t-totally s-salvageable f-f-for f-f-function."

"Twitch, you're getting upset, breathe," Ruby said evenly as she finished using the medical salve and turned to the sink to wash her hands.

The cyborg nodded a little shakily, taking a few breaths before turning to face the group and continuing. "... If she wants a prosthetic, the rest of the arm will have to c-come off."

Yang winced. "You can't save any of it?"

"N-no. The nerves were d-d-destroyed. With that and the n-necrosis I'll have to go all the way up to the sh-shoulder to get good ones. With the necrosis i-it should really come off anyway."

Kai stared down at the unconscious woman. "... Is her life in danger if it doesn't right away?"

"N-no. She'll still feel pretty sick but it can w-wait."

"And shoulder-attachment prosthetics require more surgery, don't they?" Kai prompted, glancing aside at Twitch.

"Y-yes. I'll have to g-go in and fasten reinforcements to her shoulders, m-maybe her c-collarbone and ribs depending on what the bone is like. She's not s-strong enough for that right n-now though."

Kai took a glance around at the others, but they were all looking at her, so. "Okay. Let's hold off on removing the rest of her arm, then... it's not going to help her mental state if she wakes up missing more parts of herself. Go ahead and do the surgery and encasement on her leg, if you think she's strong enough for that one."

"I-in a few hours, with that bag in her and another running, and m-maybe a transfusion."

"Got the blood you need?"

"Y-yes. She should be a bit more coherent when she comes around. Tomorrow."

"Okay, get it done, Twitch." Kai leaned in and pecked her forehead. "And good job."

"... Th-thank you."

"And this is where I live," Weiss said cheerfully enough as she led the way inside the studio apartment. "Make yourself at home for the moment, we'll get you your own soon."

"It's very nice," Pyrrha whispered softly, glancing around the little room that Kai and Weiss had so far not customized much in the way of decoration, just adding various purely comfortable touches, since they primarily slept and fucked there without spending much time otherwise. In an attempt to help her feel more normal, Ruby had helped Pyrrha get dressed in a red t-shirt, a pair of sweatpants, and some slippers. She wobbled just a little as she tried to turn and sit on the couch, giving Kai a sheepish grin as the other redhead caught her arm and helped her lower herself. "Thank you. I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name?"

"You did, downstairs," Kai noted gently as she turned to sit on the coffee table, the rest of her crew almost hesitantly making their way inside as well.

"... Oh, that's right," the green-eyed woman murmured, raising her hand to her head and shaking it a little. "I'm sorry. You're... Kai. Kai... Sterling. It's... still so difficult to think sometimes."

"It's okay, seems like you've been through a lot," Kai assured her. 

"Not that you... have to tell us or anything, if you're not ready, Pyrrha," Ruby said slowly as she made her way around the table and sat down beside her supposedly dead friend. "But...  _ do _ you remember what happened to you?"

Pyrrha blinked her big green eyes, still just a bit glazed, the right one still slightly cloudy. She looked around the room at the mostly-familiar countenances of her friends, with the faintly distant expression of someone who thinks they must be having one last fever dream before dying.

"Hey Blake, grab Pyrrha a water, would you?" Kai prompted with a glance.

"Oh, right, sure." Opening the fridge and snagging one of the bottles, Blake walked over and proffered it, ears folding a little as Pyrrha flinched... then jumping slightly as the redhead almost snatched the bottle from her hand.

"... Oh." Pyrrha blinked. "I'm... so sorry, Blake," she murmured, lowering her head shamefacedly. "... I seem to have developed some rather awful habits."

"It's okay," Blake assured her quickly and gently.

_ Let her ask for help if she decides she needs it, _ Yang sent in a firm tone, lips pressed into a line.

Pyrrha stared at the bottle for a moment, then at her missing arm. Her lips opened and closed a few times, as if trying to find something to say to convince herself that it all really was that fever dream. Then she took a breath and tucked the bottle between her thighs, squeezing lightly as she used her hand to unscrew the cap.

"I... remember fighting Cinder," she began slowly once she'd drained the water and passed the empty to Kai to be set down on the table. "The giant Grimm was climbing the tower behind us, and things... weren't going well. ... She shot me. In the leg." Her gaze wandered down, staring at her calf where it was encased in shiny black above the line of her slippers and all the way up to her knee.

She was quiet for a little while before she continued. "And then she was going to fire again as I threw my shield, and at the last second I managed to turn, and it... it hit my arm instead," she whispered, raising her hand to the terminating point of her left arm, now wrapped in bandages. "Cinder... ... smiled. ... and clenched her fist. ... and..."

Pyrrha lowered her head and closed her eyes, tears slipping out from under her eyelids. Ruby draped her arms around the tall woman and rested her head on her shoulder, just holding her in silence for a while.

Eventually Pyrrha sucked in a breath through her nose, raising her hand to wipe her face. "I... think I heard you scream my name, Ruby, and then there was this blinding flash, and... it's all honestly a blur after that. I know I've... been here... for some time, but I'm still not even sure where 'here' is."

Kai skimmed a glance around at the rest, before slowly bringing her gaze back to Pyrrha. "Okay, so... this is gonna be a little rough, especially with you feeling like you are now. You might want to wait for an explanation until you're a little more steady. But that's up to you."

Pyrrha stared at her for long moments, then glanced around again at the altered images of her friends. Her family. Then she looked back at the other redhead again. "... I would like to hear it," she whispered, adding, "Please."

"Alright, so. First of all, you're on a whole other world, in a whole other dimension, different from Remnant. This is a planet called Makarzia. It's one big city, and compared to Remnant, not that great of a place to live, even if it does lack Grimm."

"I... it  _ lacks Grimm _ ?" Pyrrha blurted.

Kai couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. "Wow, that's the part that gets you?"

"Actually, come to think of it, the Grimm are sort of omnipresent in our media," Blake noted with a thoughtful frown. "They're such a big part of our history that even most fantasy and sci-fi includes them. It would be like media without the concept of Faunus... except, you know, not racist."

"... Ooookay, dodging that, yeah, you're in a very different place. Aaaand here's the one where it gets a bit dicier," Kai continued slowly. "Because... she's not the Ruby Rose who you heard scream," she concluded, flicking a finger at Ruby.

"... What?" Pyrrha murmured, turning her head to stare at the woman next to her.

Ruby took a deep breath, then met that green gaze. "... On the Remnant I come from, Pyrrha Nikos got shot in the chest. She died. I watched Cinder burn her away to nothing."

"She... the...?" Pyrrha's hand fluttered up to her chest, head lowering to stare down at it.

"The multiverse means there's not just one Remnant, there are a lot of them, and things are at least a little different on each one," Kai explained, still trying to keep her tone gentle. "Now we don't exactly have a broad enough experience to know if you're the variant or ours was, but the fact of the matter is... these aren't  _ exactly _ the people you knew."

"You're...?" Pyrrha looked around, seeming more lost than spaced out. "You're saying you're... not actually my friends?"

"Pyrrha, we  _ are _ your friends," Weiss assured her as she stepped forward, kneeling by the couch and covering Pyrrha's hand with both of hers. "It doesn't matter what dimensional coordinates you come from, you're Pyrrha Nikos. And we're here for you, okay?"

"... This is quite a lot to take in," the other redhead said slowly. "But... I think for my own piece of mind... fragile as it feels at the moment," she added with a tiny, wan grin. "I will simply take that at face value." She turned her hand upright, squeezing one of Weiss's. "Thank you, Weiss." Then she closed her eyes, upper body giving a little wobble. "... I'm sorry, I think... I'm a little overwhelmed and..."

"Why don't you get some rest, Pyrrha?" Blake urged gently. "You're still recovering."

"Yes... I think you're right. Oh," she murmured as Kai fished out the pill containers Twitch had given her and tapped out some of them. "Yes, that... that nice woman with the extra arms said I should take those before sleeping, didn't she? ... I have this vague feeling I did something hurtful to her, could you tell her-"

"You're sorry?" Kai couldn't help but interrupt with a grin, Pyrrha actually blushing a little. "Yeah, I'll let her know, pretty sure she understands though," Kai assured her, setting the pills in Pyrrha's palm. Once she'd tossed them in her mouth, Blake handed her another bottle of water, this one already opened.

The drowsiness hit her almost immediately, and Pyrrha said nothing else as Kai and Weiss helped her up and over to the bed, lowering her down onto it and covering her up with one of the blankets.

"So in her world, she lived," Ruby whispered. "... Except my eyes somehow knocked her to Makarzia."

"We don't know if that's what it was, Rubes. It could have been that, or a hundred other things, or a combination of that and those hundred other things," Kai cautioned her. "Whatever it was, the point is she's alive and she's here."

"So... what do we do now?" Yang asked after a moment, folding her arms.

"One of us needs to be with her all the time until she's strong enough for the surgery," Kai said after a moment's thought. "The rest can work lower level stuff. Stick close to Tailtown. No big jobs if it's not all of us. For now, let's take tonight off too."

From long practice, Kai knew when someone woke up around her. She lifted her gaze from the paperback she was reading, her feet propped up on the coffee table, and looked over, watching as Pyrrha's eyes opened and she stared at the ceiling. Kai could tell she was trying to piece her mind together like a jigsaw puzzle, and saw the slightly distressed set of her eyes at still finding doing so more difficult than it should be. Still, she looked fairly clear-eyed (almost literally, the infection in her right eye steadily fading) as she turned her head to look at the other redhead.

"Hey, how you feeling?" Kai asked, dogearing her page and tossing the book on the table as she sat up.

"Better. I think," she said a little distantly. "... I remember who you are right away at least."

"Yeah?" Kai prompted with a grin.

"... You're my sister Asha Nikos, yes?" Pyrrha replied, pursing her lips into a thin line.

Kai blinked. It took her a moment before she snorted. "Cute. You  _ are _ feeling better."

"Yes." She raised her head and glanced around.

"Weiss went out to do some food shopping. We don't eat in much in general."

"Ah, I see." Pyrrha lay there looking at the ceiling again for a moment, then blinked and looked at Kai again. "'We'?"

"Yeah. It's my apartment too. Weiss and I are together," Kai confirmed.

"Ah. I see." Pyrrha blinked more slowly this time, then gave a little shrug with her lips. "It's nice that she finally figured it out. ... I'm sorry, I must be putting you both out."

"We don't mind," Kai answered, watching as Pyrrha pushed the blanket off of herself, then tried to push herself up. She restrained the urge to hop up and hurry over, instead waiting until Pyrrha had flumped back down to offer breezily, "Want some help?"

"... It's very  _ low _ ," Pyrrha replied with just a bit of a huff, before holding up her hand. "Yes please."

Kai got up and ambled over, taking her hand and pulling, just getting her partly upright and then letting her pull herself the rest of the way. "The apartments were sort of furnished and outfitted with genemods in mind, most of them prefer low beds, Weiss and I have just kind of gotten used to it."

"I see. ... Genemods?" she asked with a blink.

"Yeah, they're... well, they're artificially created people, but flesh and blood. Most have animal traits a little bit like Faunus."

"I... see. And this is a building for them?"

"Mostly. This whole part of town is a lot of genemods and other races with similar traits. Even some actual Faunus. We're kind of a distinct minority as humans," Kai informed her with a grin.

"Mm." Pyrrha processed that for a moment, then cleared her throat and glanced at the only door in the apartment other than the front one. "Is that the...?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Kai waited, then crossed over and lingered near the door, just in case. When she heard the toilet flush she decided that everything was probably fine and headed over to the kitchen, rummaging through the bagged readymeals and finding one of red beans and rice, dropping it in the boiler as Pyrrha emerged.

The green-eyed woman settled herself gingerly on the couch, wincing a little as she was forced to do a less than controlled drop about halfway down, but settled after a moment. Kai could see her head perk a little once she removed the bag from the hot water and opened it, emptying the contents into a bowl. Snagging up one of a row of grey plastic tubes from along the counter, Kai walked over and set the bowl down on the coffee table in front of her, then held up the tube.

"Dense nutrient paste. Help you rebuild muscle and get back to full and active function way faster. Probably won't improve the taste of a bag meal much, but it's got the stuff you need, so," she explained, flipping the top open with her thumb and pouring the somewhat grey semi-fluid inside in, mixing it up with the spoon.

"I see. Well. I suppose I should try to exercise, a little," Pyrrha replied, pushing a cheerful edge into her voice.

"Leeet's settle for a few stretches today."

"... Yes, I suppose you're right." She leaned forward and picked up the spoon, jerking just a little as Kai sat down next to her but managing to control any further reaction. Pyrrha lifted the spoon, started to bring it forward, and stared as it began to tremble in her fingers. Rather than spill it she quickly shoved it back in the bowl... then released it and pressed her hand to her face.

"Hey. Easy," Kai murmured gently, rubbing her back a little. "Breathe."

"... I'm sorry," Pyrrha croaked. "I don't... know why I'm having so much trouble." She forced a smile as she glanced at Kai. "I still have my dominant hand, after all, don't I?"

"Because you're still busted up pretty good and you're upset," Kai replied simply, looking her in the eye. She glanced at the bowl, then at Pyrrha. Then she got up. "Hey, I'm gonna stroll around the hall, see if any of the others are back yet, you okay with that?"

"... Yes. Thank you."

Kai wandered out into the hall, taking out her comm and checking her messages, sending the rest of her crew a brief update about Pyrrha being awake and alright. She didn't figure this would take long, but. Eventually she headed back inside, just as Pyrrha was setting the bowl back on the table beside the spoon, licking her fingers quickly before giving the other woman a sheepish look.

"Anyway, for the next little while, just tell us whenever you feel okay to eat, you probably ought to whenever you feel like you can," Kai said casually as she picked up the bowl and headed over to rinse it out. 

"Mm, alright. And... did Twitch say when I can expect to feel... well, back to normal?" Pyrrha asked, tilting her head. Then she smiled wanly at Kai's silence. "Ah."

"No, it's not like that. Just..." Kai walked back over and settled down at a bit of an angle from her on the coffee table, resting her forearms on her thighs. "Okay, so there's bad news and good news."

"Well. I suppose I should be grateful there's good news," Pyrrha replied dryly.

"Alright, so. Bad news." Kai looked her in the eye. "Twitch says because of the nature of the injuries and that they went untreated for so long, she can fix your leg and most of the other stuff, but... she's going to have to remove the rest of your left arm."

Pyrrha was silent at that, her head turning towards the wrapped bit of limb emerging from her sleeve. She raised her other hand to touch against the bandages, then nodded slowly. "I see," she whispered. "I did think it didn't feel quite... right... even considering. So it will be just... nothing?"

"Right up to the shoulder, yeah. But, good news," Kai pressed on. "When you're strong enough Twitch can install the connections to give you a cyberlimb. A fully functional prosthetic, like Yang's. So you'll go to sleep, and then wake up basically back to full function."

"... I see, a..." Pyrrha frowned just a little, raising her head, clearly starting to actually realize something she saw before. "Did Yang have...?"

"Yeah," Kai confirmed with a nod.

"Oh," Pyrrha whispered, concern filling her eyes. "What... happened?"

"Run-in with a bad guy, same as you. I'll let her tell you the details. But yeah, it should work and mostly feel like a normal arm whatever it looks like. You'll... probably take some time adapting to having it, but you should be able to use it like it's yours from the moment you wake up."

"I see. ... And it will just be the arm, like Yang...?"

"Since it's a shoulder emplacement Twitch has to do a few more things in your shoulders, maybe a little further in... I think it's kind of like a leverage thing, prosthetics starting at the shoulder aren't anchored as well as lower down on the arm or something unless it's reinforced. But those won't show and you won't feel them."

Pyrrha nodded slowly, sitting back and leaning her head back, clearly just trying to absorb everything. She raised her hand and absently traced the scar that ran across the bridge of her nose, not seeming to even realize she was doing it. But finally she asked, "And then what?"

"Then it's up to you. Getting you back where you came from is... well, sorry, that's gonna be borderline impossible," Kai admitted with a soft sigh. "But, we can find you another Remnant, or take you back to the one we know. You can stay on Makarzia, try to live an upright life. Or, when you're feeling up to it," she said with a grin. "You can join my crew."

"Your... crew?" Pyrrha echoed, something like a bit of amused sparkle coming into her eyes.

"Yeah, Team RWBY and my right hand, Ilia, she's from Remnant too. Now, it's no Huntress work," Kai continued, still grinning. "It's a larcenous life doing larcenous shit. We're night creatures. But we try to help people where we can as we go about it. We do some good in between stealing and busting shit up."

"I see. ... And you think I could...?" Pyrrha said slowly, trying to just make it a general question, but her eyes flicked towards her left.

"Hey. Listen. You're still Pyrrha fucking Nikos, alright?" Kai assured her, grinning as that particular usage of her name made her jump a little before she gave a small, surprised laugh. "And I think maybe at some point you need to start realizing how fucking lucky you are, too."

"Oh now really," Pyrrha snorted, giving Kai the most 'enough bullshit' look the other redhead could have imagined on that face.

"No, seriously, think about it. For one thing you  _ survived _ your little duel with Cinder. And admittedly we have a small sample size, but that puts you in the top 50% of all Pyrrha Nikoses we're aware of." Pyrrha ducked her head, a slightly sorrowful look in her eyes, but Kai continued. "Then you survived whatever dimensional fuckery happened next. And you wound up on Makarzia... not the best place in the multiverse to be, but trust me, far, far from the worst. Then despite basically being in mental breakdown you managed to survive the next year or so on the streets. And then, of all the sectors in this fucking city, me and my crew decide to go get a meal at that exact time in that exact sector where you saw Yang's blonde hair and purple eyes and it triggered something in you that led you out to us. And now you're here. You're safe, you're fed. We're gonna get you back on your feet and help you however you need us to."

Kai looked at her for long moments as she stared down at her lap, before finally concluding, "Seems pretty fucking lucky."

"... Well. Perhaps if I keep telling myself that," Pyrrha said after a few minutes, managing a little smile. Then she sighed and hung her head. "Unfortunately... I think I'm already feeling tired again."

"That's probably normal." Kai turned to look as the door opened, and grinned. "Hey, Snowbird, get everything?"

"Mhm." Weiss settled a bag on the counter, a messenger bag slung over her shoulder as well. She smiled. "Hello, Pyrrha."

"Hello again," the redhead said tiredly.

"Mm, you sound ready to go back to bed. I'd better get this set up then," Weiss said as she headed towards the bed area.

"Whatcha got, babe?"

"Twitch said she can..." Weiss paused, glancing over.

"It is alright, she told me about the surgery," Pyrrha murmured, eyes a little downcast again.

"... Well, Twitch said PYrrha can maybe be ready by the end of the week if we keep giving her these drips when we can. They need to be kept cool, though, could you make space in the fridge, Kai?"

"I think there's plenty but yeah, let me check," the red-eyed woman answered, getting up and heading to the kitchen.

"A week? Really?" Pyrrha said with a blink.

"One of the nice things about Makarzia is that they actually have a lot of really good medicine, if you can afford it, and the Geneslicers are very good to us," Weiss assured her, extending the collapsible stand and then drawing out a plastic bag full of mostly clear solution. "Here, dear," she added in a murmur, handing Kai the messenger bag as she came over for it, then hanging the bag up and attaching a tube.

Kai let Pyrrha get to her feet on her own, but when she paused at the edge of the bed the red-eyed woman stepped up to help her leverage herself to sit down on it. Pyrrha glanced down as Weiss peels a strip of tape off her inner arm, then stared. "What is that?"

"Twitch installed a small injection port, just to make stuff like this easier until you're back to full, don't worry, she can take it out after and you'll never know it was there," Kai assured her as Weiss slid the needle into the small metal hookup. "Better than letting Weiss try to find a vein. Or an artery."

Weiss flushed a little. "Well I'm sorry it was my  _ first time _ !"

"Weiss hon, get her bedtime pills and some water, huh?" Kai prompted with a grin, leaning down to Pyrrha's left leg. "Okay, let's do a few of those stretches before you turn in, if you feel up to it."

"Yes, thank you."

"Okay, uuup like this," Kai murmured, lifting Pyrrha's leg and pushing it back towards her chest while keeping her foot forward, moving the leg up and down, feeling her do her best to help with the motions. "Just some easy stuff for today. Now the other one... uncomfortable or hurts?" Kai asked immediately as Pyrrha grimaced at a certain point.

"... Hurts."

"Okay, where's it stop hurting?" Kai prompted, slowly lowering the other woman's leg.

"... There."

"Okay, it's fine. You've been limping on this leg for a good long while. Probably we need to have someone come in here and give you a few massages, I know someone who's probably great at it. We'll just do a few more... okay, there we go, got the blood moving a little at least."

"Thank you. Thank you," Pyrrha repeated as Weiss handed her the pills, then an opened bottle of water. She held out a little better against the drowsiness this time, managing to lower herself to the mattress and scoot aside a bit to lay down. Kai pulled a blanket up over her, her eyes heavy-lidded. "I suppose... I am... lucky," Pyrrha murmured, before her eyes sink entirely closed.

"... Lucky?" Weiss asked with a blink.

"We had a kind of good talk," Kai explained with a grin. "I think she's gonna be okay.

"I can't believe she keeps doing this, don't you keep receipts, woman?" Blake grumbled as she flipped another page in the paperback, glowering at the distinctly creased corner.

"Mmf." Pyrrha shifted, half-consciously batting at the line of her drip as she started to come around.

"Oop." Unthinkingly dogearing her page and tossing the book aside, Blake leapt up and rushed over. "Hey, hey, easy, Pyrrha, don't pull your line out, you're okay."

"... Blake?" Pyrrha rasped a little, blinking repeatedly.

"Yeah, it's me, hi." Blake smiled, brushing a hand briefly over the once more soft crimson tufts. "Everyone else is out working a job."

"I see," Pyrrha murmured again.

"You sound a bit hoarse, does your throat hurt again?" At the redhead's small nod, Blake nodded back. "Okay, Twitch said that might happen, means you need another pill. I'll get it in a minute but do you need to get up first?"

"... Yes, please."

"Alright, one second." Blake flicked a small switch on the side of the needle and then carefully withdrew it from the port, before standing and offering Pyrrha her hand. "Go ahead, I'll go get it while you're in there."

Once the two met back up at the bed, Blake with a pill bottle and water bottle in one hand, she helped Pyrrha sit back down on the side of the bed. "Will this make me sleep again?" Pyrrha asked, just a little warily.

"No, not this one, it's just an antibiotic." Blake passed Pyrrha the pill, waited for the mouth-toss, then handed over the water bottle. "Actually before I put the drip back in, do you feel up to taking a shower?"

"I... yes, I think so."

"Alright then, back up we go I guess," Blake said a bit sheepishly before helping Pyrrha up again. "The showers here are push-button so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Call if you need anything, okay?"

Pyrrha glanced down at herself, considered, then sighed softly. "... I think I will need help with my shirt. I'm sorry."

"Pyrrha, you don't have to be sorry," Blake assured her gently, even as she stepped in to pull the t-shirt up, waiting for Pyrrha to lift her arm to raise it further. "Doing it on your own is fine if you want to. Asking for help is fine if you need to."

"... Thank you." Pyrrha nodded, feeling too wrung out to bother covering her chest as she turned and made her way into the bathroom.

Blake made her own way back into the kitchen, withdrawing a few small plastic packets from her pocket, eyes flicking and lips murmuring as she figured out ratios while dropping bits of dried leaves into a metal cup, reaching out to flick the kettle on as she did. As she was pouring hot water into the cup, she heard Pyrrha call, and quickly placed the plastic cap on the cup before heading into the bathroom.

"I'm sor-... mm. I'm having a little trouble with this again," Pyrrha said with a sigh, flapping the towel in her hand a bit.

"It's fine, here," Blake said, accepting the towel and starting to pat Pyrrha dry with quick, efficient movements.

"You... must have had to learn to do this for Yang," Pyrrha said quietly. "I'm sorry. ... About what happened."

"I..." Blake hesitated for a moment, then sighed again, glancing up. "I... ran out on Yang. When it happened." She smiled wanly at the shock in those brilliant green eyes. "I was guilty, and I was afraid. So I ran, like I always do. It took us awhile to get back to each other from it, in more ways than one. But I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I  _ would _ have done if I'd been there, so I guess lucky you," she added a bit wryly.

"Yes, I do seem to keep hearing that," Pyrrha murmured in a heavily wry tone of her own. She went silent as Blake helped her get dressed again in a fresh shirt and sweatpants, before asking, "So you're together now?"

"Mhmm. Before we got here, even, though it's weird, I think we've learned to connect on a whole other level because of Makarzia. It's definitely a wildly different experience," Blake added as she helped Pyrrha sit on the bed again, leaning down to reconnect the drip line and switch it back on. "I'm gonna get you something else to help your throat," she added before heading back to the kitchen.

"Mm. Kai told me this place... the part of the city we're in, that is... is populated by people like Faunus," Pyrrha ventured after a moment.

"And there's an actual Faunus population too, now," Blake agreed, coming back over with the cup and taking a seat. "Here, sip this slowly. It's tea, and it should help with some of your soreness. Iiiit's also a  _ mild _ euphoric," she added in an amused tone. "So you may get a little bit giggly."

"... I don't think I'd mind some giggly," Pyrrha admitted with a tiny smile, setting the cup on her thigh to slide open the drinking aperture and sip. "Mmf. ... This is actually rather nice, what sort of tea is it?"

"Mine, I grew it. I've picked up a little hobby since we got here," Blake admitted with a grin. "It'll generally perk you up and help a bit with making serotonin. I think," she further admitted, just a bit sheepishly.

Pyrrha just sipped at it for awhile. "... Is it nice?" she finally asked, before glancing at the window. 

"You mean living in a place where people like me are the majority? Well, I grew up on Menagerie so I'm not as unused to it as you'd think, but... I think in some ways it's made me realize that culture is a much bigger dividing line than race," Blake admitted. "I may fit in a bit better visually than some of the others, but this place was just as... well,  _ alien _ to me as it was to Weiss when we first arrived."

Blake thought for a moment, then continued slowly, "If you're asking if I'm  _ happy _ here, then... weirdly, I think I am. This place, it's... dirty, and dangerous, and cruel in all in its own ways. And it's also strangely... beautiful, and noble, and  _ free _ in ways I don't think Remnant will ever be."

"So... you're not going back?" Pyrrha asked quietly.

"What? No, I-" Blake blinked several times. "Oh, I guess no one said. We're only here because it was a way to escape and protect Ruby, but we'll go back once we've earned enough for the trip. And finish what we started."

"I see. It's just... the way you talked about this place... ... it didn't  _ sound _ like you want to leave."

Blake silently chewed that one over for some time. Then she noticed Pyrrha's cup was mostly empty, and the redhead had a serene smile on her lips and a slightly glassy look in her eyes. "Oop. Looks like I still need to tweak those ratios a little."

"It's fine," Pyrrha replied dreamily.

Snorting softly, Blake took the cup and gently nudged her friend to lay back. "Guess it still worked out though. Lucky you."

"Yes... lucky me... so everyone says," Pyrrha confirmed with a little giggle as she closed her eyes.

Pyrrha opened her eyes and found herself staring directly into a set of curious purple ones.

"... Hello again?" she said a bit dubiously. 

"Hey." Yang grinned and leaned back, settled to sit on the side of the bed. "Sorry, you were making noises in your sleep, I wasn't sure whether you were laughing or crying."

Pyrrha tried to think back to what she might have been dreaming about, but there was really just... dark... between when she'd closed her eyes last and opened them just now. "I'm sorry, I couldn't tell you."

"S'fine, just checking on you."

Pyrrha scooted back a little, with some difficulty managing to push herself up on just one elbow... then blinked as she felt something brushing along her neck. She finished levering herself into a sitting position and raised her hand... to find that her hair now brushed her shoulders. Her eyes went wide. "How long was I...?!"

"Only about six hours, easy," Yang assured her with a short laugh, reaching out to rest her golden hand on her friend's back. "Apparently it's a little side effect between Blake's tea and the drip. Completely harmless, other than making you look a  _ little _ less scruffy. Man, what even happened to your hair before?"

Pyrrha searched the vague, murky haze of the last year of her life, much as she did every time she awoke, trying to find some clarity or purpose in it. Like every time, she came up mostly wanting, and simply shook her head. "I... think when my scalp started itching badly I would get upset and maybe... try to saw it off against the sides of bricks?"

"Geez," Yang murmured, watching Pyrrha as she scooted around to sit beside the blonde.

"... I see you cut your hair as well," Pyrrha observed after awhile, smiling just a bit. "I certainly did not expect that."

"Hey, me either, but I got this seriously badass tattoo all over my back, and it was kind of an honor thing and I felt bad covering it up. So." Yang grinned and flicked her hands at the curls of her shortened hair. "Took awhile but I got used to it. I admit it's a hell of a lot easier to sleep now without rolling over on it or something."

"Mm." Pyrrha's smile faded a little, as she looked downward. "... Was that also a problem when...?" she asked in a whisper.

"... Yeah, at first," Yang admitted, resting her own hands in her lap. She regarded the redhead for a few moments, then asked quietly, "You wanna talk about it? Got any questions?"

"I... ... perhaps," Pyrrha admitted after a moment, glancing down at her left arm, then at Yang's golden hand. "It's very... strange... for me. In some ways it feels like it happened yesterday, but in other ways, it's... been a year. I find the less I think about it the more I can manage, but... it's very hard not to think about it."

"You having any phantom limb?" Yang inquired gently, regarding the bandage-wrapped terminus of Pyrrha's arm. "It hurting, or twitching on you?"

"... Hurting, no. I think the sensation of... it... is distinct on its own so maybe that's keeping me from having pain, but... my left hand keeps twitching, yes."

"Okay, so we're gonna go ahead and do two things," Yang said easily, scooting her legs in closer to the bed. "Go ahead and close your eyes. Now I want you to do your best to breathe nice and deep, and regular... easy... get nice and calm. And just... think still thoughts. Let your other arm be still, and let that stillness flow up your arm, into your shoulders, and down your other arm. Just focus on that for a few minutes."

Pyrrha, already versed in various meditation techniques, nodded and followed along with the instruction, doing her best to calm herself, trying not to worry that her chest would hitch with congestion and pain every time she breathed deeply. 

"Alright, next what I'm gonna do is use just a little bit of Aura on the back of your shoulder here," Yang continued, scooting around to use her left hand and press her fingertips to Pyrrha's shoulderblade. "I'm no Aura Healer but all I'm gonna do is cause a minor tingle that's gonna draw your mind's attention here instead. Okay... there we go. Better?"

"I think so, yes." Pyrrha smiled as she opened her eyes. "Thank you very much."

"Just little stuff. I didn't pay as much attention in therapy as I probably should have," Yang admitted with a bob of the head.

"I see. Was it very difficult for you?"

"Well... yeah, like most I was in denial, for awhile, had a bit of an NRO addiction for a month or so, and kiiinda moved into acceptance but... turned out I'd just backslid into a different kind of denial," the blonde concluded sheepishly. "It started getting better when I got the arm but I still had to do a bit of work."

Pyrrha nodded a few times. Took a deep breath. "Will it... be very bad, getting used to it?"

"It shouldn't. Niobe... that's the lady that runs this place and gives us jobs... she's getting your arm done by a really good mechanic, so it should feel pretty natural to you right from the get-go. But..." Yang bobbed her head as she allowed. "You'll probably have a little bit of dysphoria now and then. Every so often. Feeling like there's something... foreign... attached to your body. It  _ can _ be really bad if you get phantom limb while you're wearing it, and it feels like the arm you have and the arm you used to have are doing slightly different things."

"I see. Can... these exercises help with that?"

"Yeah. Though if it's really bothering you sometimes the best thing to do is just take it off for a little while and lay down while you get your thoughts straight. If you can. The laying down and taking some time I mean."

Pyrrha nodded again, let those thoughts tumble over in her mercifully clearer head for a while. Then she held up her hand. "Could you help me up please?"

"Sure." Yang stood and helped Pyrrha to her feet, also taking a minute to shut off the needle and slide it out of the port..

"Thank you. Where is everyone else by the way?" Pyrrha asked while heading into the bathroom.

"Getting a bite to eat after a job, I just snagged a sandwich and came to let Blake go eat. Speaking of which, you up to eating?"

"Yes, thank you," Pyrrha called back through the door.

By the time she emerged, Yang had finished prepping a large bowl of broccoli cheese rice. Pyrrha noticed that the spoon this time was one of the broad, shallow ones often given with soup in Mistral, and felt both slightly embarrassed and relieved. She sat down and did her best not to wolf down the meal, but in only a matter of minutes it was gone, and she found herself unthinkingly holding the bowl out to Yang pointedly. Catching herself, she blushed. "I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's cool, sounded like you missed eating on Blake's watch so only makes sense you're famished. Your stomach feel like it could take some mild curry?"

"That... sounds lovely, actually," Pyrrha admitted as Yang rummaged in the large pile of bags in the fridge. "... It's so strange, knowing I lost possibly an entire year... maybe even more. And yet I find myself having these little... fits... where I behave in ways I must have developed in that time."

"Pretty rough all over," Yang agreed gently as she dropped the bag in the boiler and closed the lid. "But hey, overall you're-"

"Lucky?" Pyrrha cut in, smiling dryly at Yang's blink. "Yes, I do believe I've heard that several times so far."

"Well. Yeah. I mean, among other things, seemed like you were drawn to my hair and eyes. My sunglasses got broken like two hours before that," the blonde said, raising her eyebrows as Pyrrha blinked. "You are either really fucking lucky, Pyrrha Nikos, or someone up there is looking out for you and made sure we'd find you that day."

"I... don't know what to think of that," Pyrrha admitted after a moment. "I'm not sure what to think anymore about the idea of gods, or legends, or dest-"

'Do you believe in destiny?'

"Hey, hey, Pyrrha, easy, easy, okay, easy, breathe."

Suddenly she realized she was on the floor, curled into a ball, her arm hugged around her head. 'What a ridiculous position to be in,' she thought, and yet she couldn't make herself stop rocking and sobbing.

"Pyrrha. Listen to my voice. It's not real. She's not here. She can't hurt you. Listen to me instead. Follow my voice back."

Follow... follow Yang's voice... back? But she was here and... and yet listening to Yang talk was making her feel like she had control over herself again. She shuddered, before slowly raising her head, her face soaked with tears. "I'm sorry," she croaked, almost reflexively.

"Pyrrha no," Yang admonished gently from where she was squatted down nearby. "Don't... well, it's you," she amended with a slightly wan smile. "You gonna be alright if I touch you?"

"I... think so, yes," Pyrrha murmured with a nod.

Yang reached out, drawing her up... but Pyrrha was surprised to find herself being pulled not to her feet, but into a hug. One of Yang's hands pressed to the back of her head, holding her securely, and the blonde whispered, "That gets better too. I promise."

Pyrrha buried her face against Yang's shoulder and cried.

"I'm so sorry for putting you out like this."

"It's really not a big deal, Pyrrha, honestly."

"I'm sleeping in your bed," the redhead said dryly, shaking her head, then looking rather confused. "Where  _ are _ you and Kai sleeping?"

"If just one of us is in, on the couch, if both she got a sort of instant-inflate little mattress thing that we lay out in front of the coffee table," Weiss replied easily, currently wearing a long t-shirt and white spandex bike shorts as her apparent choice of casual wear. "Now, just one more stupid bit of medical nonsense and the two of us can eat and watch a movie," she added. "Try not to blink too much."

Pyrrha did her best to control her eyelid as Weiss shined a reddish light in her right eye. "... Is it alright?"

"I don't see any of the glowy bits that Twitch told me to look for, so looks like your infection is 100% gone. Seeing alright?"

"I mostly see a red light, my dear," Pyrrha noted wryly.

"Ahaha, riiight, sorry." Weiss clicked off the device and set it down. "Ready?"

"Yes, certainly." Pyrrha settled a little as Weiss engaged flatscreen on the wall. "What is the movie about?"

"I think it's about some scientists that invent a way to steal people's immortal souls. Then they extort a bunch of people to remove lost souls from their property. There's something about two people turning into dogs and having sex, and then the main characters fight an evil gymnast." Weiss shrugged as Pyrrha shot her a look. "It's an Earth movie, Kai recommended it."

"Alright." Pyrrha plucked up one of the vaguely savory cookie-like things that was her current meal and nibbled on it as images of a library played out on screen. "... This is a rather nice screen. I think I like it better than holographic ones."

"It does have a clearer picture this way," Weiss agreed, crunching a chip.

"... Excuse me for asking, but... didn't Blake mention that you're supposed to be saving up money to get back to Remnant?" Pyrrha asked with a curious glance.

Weiss stopped with a chip almost in her mouth.

"I... well, yes, but that's a  _ lot _ of credits. Spending a couple of hundred here and there on a secondhand TV like this doesn't really make that big of a dent, you know."

"Ah, I see. I'm sorry, I just thought I'd misunderstood." Pyrrha just watched the movie for a bit, before letting out a huff. "Because if I am honest it doesn't  _ seem _ like everyone is that eager to get back."

"I mean... we've been here a month and a half, and we knew it was going to take at least four or so when we got here. That's all," Weiss murmured, shifting in place a little.

"That clarifies things, I suppose. I'm sorry."

"It's fine, it's fine."

"Everyone has become rather different. In the time I've been gone," Pyrrha observed after a bit more of the movie had gone by. "And since they arrived here, from the sound of it."

"Me too?" Weiss asked with a bit of a smile.

"You... in some ways you seem both the most changed and the least changed," Pyrrha allowed after a bit of thought. "There is more of the you I always saw just beneath your manner at school, and there is a lot I never expected to see, and at the same time all of it seems so... natural to you. You seem very... comfortable in your own skin now, which is sadly a word I would not have used before."

"Well. Self-loathing and a lack of social development'll do that to ya," Weiss muttered, tossing a chip in her mouth.

Pyrrha smiled more. "I'm glad that you found someone, Weiss. She seems very strong and devoted. To all of you, her... 'crew'."

"She is. She... had a very difficult life, before she met us. Not that I think we've made it a lot easier for her... ... well, until we got here. She was... subjected to a lot of abuse and mistreatment. The only good thing she had in her life were some people that cared about her, and she had most of those taken away from her too. So she believes very strongly in the bonds that hold all of us together."

"Which is why you're going back to Remnant," Pyrrha concluded after only a moment's thought.

"... Yes. Our world needs us. And because it needs us, she'll come back with us. Even though I think this place has finally become the home for her that it never was in all the years she spent here before," Weiss whispered. Then she smiled, quickly wiping a palm over her face. "Well! We're all lucky to have her, you know?"

"Mm. I think so, yes."

"So, uh... you feel alright?"

"I am feeling quite well today, thank you," Pyrrha assured the brown-skinned young woman sitting on the arm of the couch. "If you'll just help me up though?"

"Oh, right right, duh. Bed's kind of low for you, huh?" Ilia hopped up and walked over, helping Pyrrha to her feet.

Once the redhead emerged, she settled on the couch, Ilia already rummaging in the fridge. "Curry, please. If there is any left."

"Looooks like Kai bought a ton, so yeah. Mind if I eat with you?"

"I most certainly do not mind."

"Cool. So, ah... soooooo..." Ilia trailed off, watching the boiler as if hoping to make it ding faster. 

"Why do they like the beds low?"

"Ah, huh?" Ilia glanced over, frowning curiously.

"Genemods. Kai said that the bed is on the floor because genemods prefer it that way," Pyrrha clarified.

"Oh, uh, right. Well, most of them were created as soldiers so they spent their early lives in the military. Lots of sleeping on the ground and stuff so they just get used to it. ... Aaaand a lot of them have nightmares and stuff and tend to roll off the bed or things so if it's less high that's good." Trying not to sigh in relief at the ding, Ilia hauled out the dripping bags and set them in bowls before grabbing the scissors. "And they like to be able to see who's coming in, have places they can roll to that are sheltered and concealed, stuff like that."

"... Would it be awful of me if I said that it sounds like this entire neighborhood needs therapy?"

Ilia snorted. "Might, but you're right. Most of us probably do." She set a bowl down in front of Pyrrha and settled at the other end of the couch with hers, blowing a bit on the steaming brown-yellow sauce and artificial chicken cubes.

"'Us'... pardon, I thought you were a Faunus?"

"Am. I just... I dunno, when I'm here it seems like the distinction means less." Ilia shrugged. "And I've got plenty of trauma of my own. Not that kind, but... enough."

"I see." Pyrrha scooped up a wider spoonful of curry, dabbed it a few times over the bowl to get the extra sauce to drip off, then ate, chewing slowly before swallowing and continuing. "You must think I'm very lucky too."

"Why, 'cause you lived?" Ilia quirked her brows, grinning wryly. "Or 'cause you're the Invincible Girl, Pyrrha Nikos, Pride of Mistral, Pumpkin Pete's girl and inspiration to Remnant, and I'm just a lowly Faunus chick from the Mantle slums?"

"... I'm sorry," Pyrrha whispered, bowing her head. "I didn't mean it like that."

"... Hey, I know you didn't, I'm sorry, I was just giving you a hard time," Ilia said more gently, setting her bowl down and leaning over to rest a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder. "The others know when I'm not serious about things like that, I kind of took it for granted. We're cool, alright?"

Pyrrha nodded slowly, managing a small smile. "Good. I don't want us to be... not cool."

Ilia regarded her for a moment, then said, "You know the real reason I think you're lucky?" At Pyrrha's silent, waiting stare, she continued. "Because you had better choices than I did. And it's not  _ all _ about you having more opportunities, more exposure, more acceptance. Some of it really probably  _ was _ luck. I... didn't get a lot of really good decisions," she continued. "My choices were things like... pretend to be human and go to a good human school or live in a crappy Mantle neighborhood and probably die there. Leave school or get expelled. Do nothing with the pain and anger I felt at the injustice of the world... or join the White Fang."

Ilia took a deep breath, let it out as she shook her head. "At least, that's what it seemed like my choices were at the time. So... yeah, I think you were lucky to have better choices available than me. But you still made good ones, so... I don't resent you for that. Unlike the others, I don't know you as anything but a face on a screen, but... I don't know, my luck might be on an upward trend. I met Kai. I met my other friends on Team KACH, Team RWBY, Team JNPR. Aaaand... now I'm meeting you, which is going pretty decent so far?" she added with a lilt, as if to check, smiling hopefully.

"It seems to be. Thank you." Pyrrha smiled at Ilia, then tilted her head. "So Team JNPR, they're... they're alright?"

"Yeah. They're still using the name too." Ilia smiled more brightly. "Because you're still a part of them."

"It's very strange," Pyrrha allowed eventually. "Thinking about going back. I mean... my friends probably think I am dead too, so I'm not sure if it quite...  _ matters _ which dimension's set of them I show up and go 'surpri~se' to," she noted, lifting her hand and wiggling her fingers. Then pausing, and glancing at Ilia. "Please picture me doing so with whatever fascinating technological marvel winds up strapped to my shoulder."

"Done and done," Ilia replied with a chuckle.

"It... almost seems like it might be better not to," Pyrrha continued slowly. "That if, like all of you, I can adapt to this place and even... learn to thrive in it... that perhaps I should stay here. After all, it seems that Remnant has determined that my course in its history is done. In one I died, in another I was... expelled. Perhaps I am not meant to be there."

"Mm. Well... I think at the end of the day... that's gonna be your choice," Ilia said, then grinned dryly. "Lucky you."

The surgery was tomorrow.

Ruby Rose lay half on top of Pyrrha Nikos, head tucked against her chest, Pyrrha's arm draped around her. They were both fully dressed, and the embrace was chaste, but something had driven them to hold one another and neither had bothered to fight the urge.

"Twitch is a really good doctor," Ruby finally said, into the quiet dark of the room, lit only by the gentle, steady pulses of neon light leaking in around the edges of the curtains. "I mean, I know the name doesn't make it sound like it, but she is. So I'm sure the operation will go super good."

"Mm, yes, I imagine so," Pyrrha murmured agreeably, but without any particular enthusiasm, her hand stroking gently over Ruby's hair.

"... Pyrrha?" Ruby raised her head a little, silver eyes reflecting the colors of the neon faintly. "I... I know you're not... 'my' Pyrrha, not the same one, but..." She trailed off, and after a moment lay her head back on the other woman's chest and murmured, "I really missed you."

Pyrrha tilted her own head, delivered a gentle, sisterly kiss to Ruby's forehead. She said nothing. 

But she found herself feeling very lucky.

"Hey, Pyrrha." Kai grinned down at her. "Take it slow, but you're good."

Pyrrha blinked up at her a few times, then sat up slowly, not even seeming to quite notice how easily she did so. It took her a second to realize she'd pushed herself with both arms, and lifted her left one up to look at it. The cyberlimb was actually rather beautiful, at least in Kai's own unlearned opinion. The outside was primarily formed of deep red carbon fiber polished to a nice shine and displaying the hex pattern it was printed in, the hexes made of bronze-colored metal. There were a few angled parts that lead into openings, showing off the flex of cables within, the whole thing giving off an air that's not unlike the Vulfens the crew had lifted their second night on Makarzia.

"Not a bad arm if I say so, my guy's really upped his game since the days of makin' shit in the mud," Niobe declared in a satisfied tone, hands on her hips. "Whattya think, kid?"

"It's... lovely," Pyrrha murmured, turning her new hand back and forth and flexing her fingers, the soft motions of the interior cables and the whirr of servos at the faintest level of audible Kai's hearing could pick up. "And it feels... natural."

"The g-good part about a sh-shoulder implant is I was able to get a w-wire r-right to your spine w-without too much t-trouble while putting in the s-supports, so you'll get v-very good feedback," Twitch explained. "Sh-should help with the other problems too."

"Thank you so very much. Both of you, all of you." Pyrrha slid off the table, blushing a little as she realized she was naked, but still apparently too charmed by looking at her new arm to cover up. Her ribs were no longer so stark, her sides filled back out, hips round again. She looked... not quite fighting ready yet, but with a few more days of supplements and some training Kai knew she and the crew would get her there.

If she wanted.

As she pulled on her simple clothes without difficulty, Pyrrha several times stopped to look at the arm, myriad emotions flashing across her face. Joy, confusion, sadness, even anger at one point. But finally she simply smiled. "I know I keep saying this, but... thank you. I don't know how I can repay you."

"Don't worry about it, kid. You're tight with my girls, you're tight with me. They're my people, by extension that makes you my people. And I take care of my people. You don't owe me a damn thing," Niobe assured her.

"... Then," Pyrrha said slowly, scarred face gradually lighting up with a smile. "Would it be too presumptuous to ask you for a job?"

"A job, huh?" Niobe echoed, her own grin slowly intensifying.

"Ah, Pyrrha, does that mean...?" Blake murmured.

"I believe I would like to give this... I believe you called it 'larcenous shit'?... a try," the other redhead asserted, green eyes twinkling.

Niobe just smirked, clapping Kai on the shoulder as she turned to leave. "Get her ready. Then get her stylish, get her deadly, and get her on the streets with you. Lucky number seven," she added with a laugh as she stepped out.

"Oh, honestly," Pyrrha huffed, shaking her head, albeit with a smile. "If you're all going to keep that up, I suppose you may as well just start calling me 'Lucky'."

Kai's own grin ramped up a few terawatts.

"Yeah, you done goofed, Lucky," Yang assured Pyrrha with a snort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I set out to write the Epic of Remnant in my CYOA, I made myself a promise: I was never going to resurrect Pyrrha. It was too cheap to just undo her death and make everything all better.
> 
> Now, that didn't mean I couldn't cheat.
> 
> This is one of those cheats... just in case you were curious, the Pyrrha that shows up in this chapter is from Remnant 7310. I felt it was fair to pull something like this because Pyrrha 7310 doesn't get to show up and be "alive again"... she will always be acutely aware that the Pyrrha the people around her know is dead, and she's just someone with the same face. It felt like enough weight to offset the cast getting Pyrrha back in their lives again... they get -a- Pyrrha, not -their- Pyrrha.


	11. Lucky Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha gets stylish and gets deadly, but will she stay? Meanwhile, the crew is given a new type of job... a chain job, one that starts with smaller jobs that are all connected to a major job and a massive payday at the end. But will bad luck and circumstances doom the chain before the first link ever gets completed?

April 23, 2993, 16:27 (Local Makarzia time)

Presswood practice swords smacked together repeatedly, overlaying the sound of feet hitting padding.

The fourth floor of the Down Boy... although currently undergoing its gradual refit into Neo-Menagerie... contained both Twitch's clinic, a handful of other services that were necessary to running a gang such as weapons maintenance, and the gym. There was a decent-sized practice mat, on which two redheads clad in near-identical black outfits of sports bras and tight shorts were sparring.

"You're still favoring that foot a little," Kai cautioned after their latest exchange.

"Hm, yes, I think you're right," Pyrrha mused, glancing down and lightly tapping the side of her heel with her sword. "I'm still getting used to not having feeling in it, I suppose."

"It's more like you're expecting the pain. Still having any?"

"No... but yes, it's hurt for so long that I'm just used to it. I shall try to be a bit more mindful."

"Choke up on the sword if you want to use it more like your gladius," Blake suggested from where she was sitting at the side.

"A good suggestion." Pyrrha gave the practice sword a few small jostles in her hand to settle it further down, then moved into a quick exchange with Kai again.

"Yeah, that's a lot better," the other redhead said agreeably after a moment. "Alright, let's turn you over to a smol for further asswhupping."

"Hup!" Ruby announced cheerfully as she hopped to her feet, wooden staff in hand. 

Pyrrha tossed her sword to Yang and was tossed another staff in return, spinning it briefly. "I suppose I haven't much hope of a spear, here."

"Not off the shelf, no."

"Technically a lot of the stuff we need to build proper Huntress weapons exists on Makarzia, but it's expensive," Yang commented, folding her arms over her chest as she watched Ruby and Pyrrha square off. "And they don't have quite the right tools, so we've just been making do with making various tweaks to off-the-shelf stuff."

Pyrrha didn't respond immediately, instead focusing on her exchange with Ruby, twirling and bobbing, and finally smiling as they parted. "You've gotten  _ much _ better at this."

"Heheh, practice," Ruby agreed with a bob of the head.

"Good job, Rubes," Kai asserted as the two stepped off the mat, rubbing the younger woman's hair. "Know what? I'm paying for that tat when you find a skinartist y'like."

"Ah, for real?!"

"Ayup."

"Best! Cousin! Ever!"

"Pyrrha, you look... good," Weiss commented, more wonderingly than anything as she handed the scarred redhead a towel, Pyrrha accepting it with her red carbon fiber limb and wiping her face.

"I do seem to have all of my muscle tone back, and possibly then some," the green-eyed woman agreed, glancing down. "Quite remarkable, considering."

"Twitch did say it might be a side effect of everything we did to get you back on your feet," Kai agreed. "Your body's geared towards high efficiency now, but it does mean you'll have to be slamming back a lot of calories on the regular."

"Meaning I will have to eat large meals and often? Heavens, oh no, what shall I do?" Pyrrha replied with the gentlest sarcasm Kai had ever heard, eyes twinkling a bit as she said it.

"Large meals when you sit down to one, snacks often, plenty of high-cal drinks. Luckily that includes alcohol," Kai said with a smirk.

"Hm... drinking." Pyrrha considered that thoughtfully.

"Better get used to the idea, it's sort of a way of life around here," Blake said dryly.

"But yeah as far as your body's concerned now and for the considerable future, calories are calories and it doesn't give a shit whether they're 'good' or 'empty'," Kai concluded.

"Understood, then. So, 'Boss'," Pyrrha answered drolly as she finished toweling off. "What is our agenda for tonight?"

"We get cleaned up, then we head to the clinic. Twitch gives you a once-over and a clean bill, then installs a cyberjack and a psycomm, we get you the basic skills you need for this work, like the driving package. About then it should be getting dark... which means I take you over to Hell Blazer to get you stylish and deadly after it's closed. Then we come back to the Down Boy, have our first meal, and Niobe gives us our job."

Pyrrha smiled winningly, as if about to take another picture for a cereal box. "Time to do larcenous shit, then!"

"Here it is," Kai said as she swiped the keycard, waiting for the door security shutter to retract and the lights to come on. "Your one-stop shop for getting outfitted for a life of crime."

"I see." Pyrrha raised her eyebrows, briefly glancing at the others waiting on the sidewalk. "And you're sure it's alright to just take whatever I like?"

"Whatever you like that you'll need," Kai amended as she led the way inside. "This guy's in debt to Niobe so far his pedipalps are treading water, but we use that for a first outfitting. Next visits we pay," she added, lifting up a new pair of golden sunglasses and dropping some creds on the counter in demonstration.

"Understood. So..." Pyrrha skimmed her gaze over the clothing racks. "Where are the changing rooms? ... I'm standing in it, aren't I?" she added ruefully as Kai smirked.

"I'll stick up here, I'm gonna grab a few more things me and the others need that I'll pay for, you pick yourself out some Makarzian night creature duds and get stylish, then we'll get you deadly."

Eventually, after some time wandering around, Pyrrha emerged from the racks. She'd found a red fingerless glove for her right hand, and picked out a coat with long forward-and-back pointed flaps, fastening on the side and with a wide, draping hood, most of it black but with a few panels of red. After spending some time with the clothing customizer and emblazoning her spear-and-shield emblem on it in flickering fiery light-up, she pulled it on over the tight long-sleeved top and simple, snug pants she'd picked out, as well as a pair of tabi-style wallgripper boots in a dull coppery color.

"Oh, found the scanner masks, huh?" Kai commented as Pyrrha lifted up the helmet-like device, the smooth, featureless round faceplate surrounded by gold, the trim dipping down in the middle to a widow's peak-like point and a thin line at the bottom. "Hope you're not feeling self-conscious or anything, you get that you're pretty as fuck, scars or no, right?"

"Hm? Oh, it isn't that," Pyrrha answered in an amused tone as she brushed back her hair and fitted the partial helmet on, the back edges of it glowing white and illuminating the inside of her hood as she pulled it up. "I just found the design familiar," she added, voice a bit electronically altered now as she tapped a finger against the tiara-like trim.

"Ahhhh, got it." Chuckling, Kai led the way over to the front of the store. "Alright, figure you're gonna want one of these, Ruby gets plenty of use out of hers," she started, picking up a collapsible staff and tossing it over. "Since it's you, figure we also need some bladed melee and some ranged."

"Correct."

"... Hey, um, listen, I know we haven't really talked about this yet, and the others have had time to adjust to it..." Kai said slowly.

"But the people here don't have Aura, play for keeps, and many of those we'll face are cruel and sadistic to rival any Grimm?"

Kai hesitated, then snorted. "Guessing someone already had that talk, then."

"Mhmm. Several someones. I... have the vague feeling it might not be my first time taking life since I arrived here," the other redhead added as she twirled one of the knives from the display racks in her hands, testing the balance, then set it back.

"... Remember anything?"

"It is very hazy. But I do remember some amount of violence. And I am still alive, so."

"Right. Hey, these are pretty popular," Kai noted in a particularly unsubtle changing of topics, picking up a switchninjato and activating it.

"Hm..." Pyrrha walked over and eyed it. "Do they come in other styles?"

"I think... oh yeah, here's something delightfully edgelordy," Kai said with a smirk, picking up another handle and working the trigger. A pair of long flat tines shot out, then snapped curved cutting edges out to the sides.

"Edgelordy or no, it is similar in size and shape to a gladius, I think I will take it," the other redhead replied in a vaguely delighted tone.

"Hup. So lastly, before we get into all the boring utilitarian stuff, we have ranged."

"Hm... something not too heavy, fairly precise," Pyrrha murmured as she walked along the racks behind the counter. Finally she picked up what looked like a long, thin rifle, but at the work of a control collapsed into a slightly bulky pistol. "Yes, this should do nicely."

"Alright. Here's all your necessities," Kai said, finishing laying out the last of the basic tools all her crew carried, as well as backups of certain things they each needed for their particular skills. "Figured you could use these too, considering the Semblance," she added, holding up one of several stacks of shuriken. "And I grabbed you a bunch of high density foodbars. Iiiii didn't pay attention to what flavors because at that grade of calories it basically all tastes of sucrose."

"Lovely," Pyrrha said with a soft laugh, starting to tuck everything about her person. "Anything else?"

"Just one. But it's outside," Kai said with a grin, tilting her head.

Pyrrha's masked head tilted a bit in curiosity, but she followed Kai back out as the other redhead locked up behind them. 

"Hup," Kai called as she tossed the new sunglasses to Yang.

"Hup," the blonde answered as she caught them and immediately slid them on. "Lookin' good, Lucky."

"Thank you. Hm? Why are you all clustered about?" she asked.

The others grinned, then stepped aside to reveal the new speedercycle. Painted in alternating red and bronze, the red sections were hex-patterned with copper inset, and it was a bit longer and sleeker than the ones the rest of the crew typically rode on.

"Niobe wanted to make you feel a bit special, since you're a late joiner and had a rough ride on the way here," Kai said with a grin, patting the somewhat stunned-seeming Pyrrha on the back. "Gorgeous, huh?"

"It... is lovely, yes." Pyrrha nodded once, then hesitated. "Thank you. May I... take it for a ride? And meet you back at the club soon?"

"... Sure." Kai nodded once, then grinned. "Have fun."

* * *

"As I watched her get on the speedercycle, I gave it about fifty fifty if we'd ever see her again.

"Not that I thought she wanted to take all we'd given and ditch us. What I mean is... Pyrrha had already given pretty much everything to the fight for Remnant. Even if she hadn't died like the Pyrrha of Remnant 4482, her own Remnant thought she had. She'd given an arm, a year, and a significant portion of who she was, and like she'd said to Ilia, maybe her course in Remnant's history was just done.

"So yeah, it wasn't that I thought she was a coward or hated us or anything like that... Pyrrha Nikos had given enough. If she had decided to ride off into the night and make a life for herself on Makarzia instead, not a single one of us would have blamed her.

"So she rode off into the night, and the rest of us watched her go, and I think we were all thinking that. From the looks on the others' faces, I think they were at peace with that... they'd gotten to say goodbye this time, even if not in as many words. Even if we never saw her again, we'd know that somewhere out there was a Pyrrha Nikos who lived.

"There was a little part of me inside that had never entirely melted away that was very gratified by that."

* * *

"So how does this change things, you think?" Blake spoke up as they sat around the table waiting.

Kai didn't answer immediately, just looking out across the club. She noticed that there were indeed a couple of female dancers mixed in with the males now... if the greater abundance of more standard night creatures hadn't chased off the down-low pervs, that would soon enough. So she let her eyes rest on a pair of very nice asses instead of just bolting out an answer.

Because no one wanted to add 'Assuming she comes back.'

"She'll mean bigger jobs," Kai allowed after a minute or two. "With seven, especially someone as physically and mentally capable as she is..." 'Assuming she hasn't cracked mentally in a way we can't see yet.' "We can pull off big league stuff. Higher-paying stuff. But, at the same time, that's one more guest pass to buy, assuming she wants to come to Remnant. Roll it all together... figure another month."

"So five months total, up from four," Yang said with a nod. "I mean, that doesn't sound so bad, huh?"

In fact, if anything, Kai noticed her crew seemed a little relieved. Huh. Damn.

'This place really is creeping into them.' Kai mused. There was a time shortly after she'd arrived that she'd been absolutely delighted... now it made her a little worried.

But she doubted she had to be. Her crew was dedicated to their homeworld and protecting it... buuuut if they started thinking that maybe once Salem was dealt with, they wanted to come back to Makarzia and live a larcenous life, Kai might not argue with them too hard.

So, they'd wait for Pyrrha to come back... the night, at least. If she didn't, they'd grab some sleep, and the next night get back to business as usual like it had all never happened.

Pyrrha cruised through the mostly empty streets on her new motorbike... speedercycle, she mentally corrected... seeing flashes of Makarzia's residents flicker past her, just flashes and impressions of dramatic clothing and colorful hair and other features. The fact that she could open the throttle any time she liked and be gone from them... admittedly that was a little comforting.

She hadn't been lying when she told the others she couldn't remember much about her time on the streets. That was true, even what few distinct memories she had were hazy and fever dream-like, like half-remembered details of a show she'd watched rather than something that had actually happened to her. The rest was just a sort of vague haze of pain and confusion and loneliness.

But she had feelings. Feelings of what it had been like.

She'd felt very weak and very vulnerable. She'd felt like she was on the bottom of the food chain of a dangerous place, a prey animal. A prey animal strong and vicious enough that it could still fight back and protect itself...

... but she had a feeling that hadn't always been enough.

She banked the cycle and headed towards the thing she'd spotted out of the corner of her eye and that her mask had identified when she focused her attention on it. The bridge had some rather boring designation, but she'd heard the others refer to it as the Corridor. It was certainly impressive enough to merit such a vainglorious title, she thought as she took a look over the edges and how the chasm it stretched across just seemed to disappear down into nothing.

She started up it, and for just a moment, she did something that rational, responsible, cautious Pyrrha Nikos never would have done... she closed her eyes, leaned her head back, and spread her arms. Let herself feel like she was flying, flying away from it all, from everything that had hurt her, from everything that had been taken from her.

Pyrrha held the bike steady with only her legs, and when there was the blast of a horn she almost calmly leaned her body and returned her hands to the handlebars, whizzing past the oncoming car with a matter of inches to spare. Her heart should have been hammering in her chest, adrenaline spiking, all her good sense shaking her violently inside as it chastised her for almost dying.

But she remembered what it felt like to think she was dead. A close call with a car barely registered.

'Some people,' she mused as she came to the midway point of the Corridor and slowed, before finally stopping and putting her feet down. 'Might call that strength.'

She tilted her hooded head up and looked at the sky. It was even less distinct with the light correction of her scanner mask... no stars, no moon, though there was more of it to look at out here in the middle of the Corridor. She'd asked Kai and been told that Makarzia did in fact have a moon, but that the smog layer and its arc meant it was very, very rarely visible from the city.

'Would you prefer the sight of a shattered one in the sky?' she asked herself.

It sounded like a frivolous question. It wasn't.

Behind her lay her friends... well.  _ A _ Pyrrha's friends. ... No. Her friends. Even if she decided she wasn't going to take anything of that other Pyrrha's... these people were her friends now, after the last week and a half. Her friends, who clearly loved this world that had given her so much pain and seemed a little reluctant to think about leaving it, no matter what they said.

But they'd go back. She knew. There wasn't any  _ real _ doubt in her mind. They didn't seem happy, quite, when they talked about going back to Remnant... but they seemed sincere.

'I've given enough.'

The thought was very strong and very firm in her mind. Pyrrha even nodded to herself, then looked down at her left hand, flexed the beautiful but just slightly inhuman-seeming digits as she turned it back and forth. She hadn't just given an arm, or a year, she'd given everything. Her life. Her world. No one, not even herself, had any right to tell her she had to give more.

'So then. It's not a question of if you have to. It's if you want to,' she decided after a few moments' formless thought. 'Ask yourself, my dear... did you ever really  _ feel _ like the Invincible Girl? Did you ever really feel you were anything but a fraud or a phony when they said those words?'

Pyrrha rolled her shoulders a little, feeling out the thought of shrugging off the mantle of the Invincible Girl, and just being a girl. Riding on ahead into the night and not coming back. There was a world out there to make hers with everything she had now...

... everything she had now.

Because now she was stronger. Her body had been rebuilt and remade to constantly perform at its peak, as long as she kept training and pushing herself. She'd been given new skills, new equipment, a new lease on life. All of those could forge her a new life here on Makarzia. Or...

'What if,' she thought slowly to herself. 'What if you went back to Remnant... and you actually felt like you were the Invincible Girl this time?'

_ Battle Tapes - Valkyrie _

Kai was just starting to consider ordering a round of drinks and a heartier meal than would have been fitting for a job night when Ruby Rose's face lit up with a bright grin, even if there was a slightly shocked look in those bright silver eyes. 'For real?' she thought, leaning across Weiss to peek out of the booth.

Sure enough, Pyrrha Nikos was walking through the club amidst the flashing lights and dancing forms, though people were making way for her. Though Kai wouldn't have necessarily thought it was the same woman... her motions were neither the slightly timid steps Pyrrha had when they found her on the street or the long, easy stride of a trained warrior Kai had seen in vids. 

They were something languid, easy... it would have been fair to call it a prowl. And definitely a bit of a strut, a shift of her shoulders just faintly matching the beat of the music. She slid into the superbooth beside Ruby, settling her scanner mask on the tabletop and draping a hand casually over it, her smile a near-sultry curl and green eyes sparkling with impending wickedness.

"Well hell..." Kai grinned, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "If it ain't Lucky."

"You're damned right it is," the Invincible Girl murmured, green eyes flashing.

"Well, my children, getting a slightly late start tonight, but-" Niobe paused, frowning down a little bit at the redhead sitting on the left side of the booth. "... You're in my spot."

Pyrrha blinked innocently up at her as she tossed the last fry of the two plates in front of her in her mouth. Chewed, very deliberately. Then glanced at her other side. Then, shrugging, she picked Ruby up and slid underneath her, the silver-eyed smol squeaking a bit as she abruptly found herself sitting in her friend's lap.

"... Eh, fair 'nuff," Niobe said with a shrug of her own, sliding into the booth in the now unoccupied space and briefly ruffling the red-faced Ruby's hair.

Kai laughed a bit as she puffed on her latest cig. "S'up, Ma?"

"I've got something perfect for your crew. Combination of easing your new member in and letting you grow into working together. I've got a chain job for you."

"Hoo, chain job, huh? Color me interdasted." Kai grinned, then glanced around at the others. "Chain job. Basically it's one really big job but it's broken up into a linked chain of smaller jobs, usually starting from little setup stuff to the big one at the end. She's right, this way we start off fairly small and have time to fit Lucky into our dynamic, but there's a big job and a big payday at the end. I assume?" she prompted, glancing back at Niobe.

"You assume right. We start out with a little bit of light stealth B&E, and waiting at the end of this series of jobs is a big corp infiltration."

"Who's the patron and what's the pay situation?"

"This is a full intergang co-op kid. Yeah, you heard right," Niobe said with a smirk as Kai's eyebrows raised. "All the major gangheads, including me, have something to get out of this inforaid, so all of us are going in on it together. By near-unanimous decision we decided to let you have the first run at it."

"First run... so it's a link-by-link."

"Right." This time Niobe was the one to look at the rest of the table. "Means that you get paid for each successful job in the chain. But the moment you fail one, you lose, turn over all your shit to the next crew, and they take over from there."

"Well. Sounds like we get paid however far we go, and not like we'll fail, so," Yang said with a smirk.

"Not just the money, but the street cred you'll get if you can pull it off from start to finish will be immense, my children, and you will finally cement yourselves as  _ the _ premier job crew of the megasector. Your prices will go up, better jobs will come in, praise the great god Moolah." Niobe plucked a small plastic cylinder case out of her jacket pocket. "Datastick, slottable for comm or jack. Has a briefing of the general job goal and your immediate work. Now, I don't need to stress that the sooner you start on this, the better."

"Right, we've got a little less than a week of the Street Demon ceasefire left," Kai agreed as she took the datastick, eyeing it before tucking it into her pocket. "And the last thing we need is them breathing down our necks as we pull off a corp heist. Speaking of which, even if we get the chain done before then, we're still gonna need to hire on a specialist for the end link... Ruby and Ilia have both gotten pretty good, but they're nowhere up to tackling full-on megaspire security."

"I'm looking into the issue, no worries. The other gangs are offering me theirs to review, hoping to get in on a bit of that limelight, and I'm subtly putting out feelers to unaffiliateds. I'll have you the best datathief I can by the time you're ready."

The crew headed down to the basement, towards where the actual base of the Geneslicers resided. "Cam, this is Lucky, newest member of my crew, Lucky this is Cammy, a tsundere bitch," Kai said breezily as they walked past the logistics specialist's desk.

"Fuck you~," Cammy called pleasantly, adding, "Pleased to meet you," without looking up as the other redhead went by.

"Yes, very nice to meet you as well," Pyrrha replied drolly.

Kai settled down at a table in one of the meeting rooms, waiting for everyone else to do so before she continued. "Alright, Yang, Ilia, link us all up to share in the presentation as I download this," she continued, tapping the datastick out of the container and settling it into her jack. Yang and Ilia's eyes flickered with datalines as they synced with everyone's psycomms, Kai's own pupils glowing faintly as she assimilated the data.

"Okay, looks like this is our target, Hatanashi Data Systems," Kai began, projecting an image of a monolith spire above the table that only existed in everyone's heads. "What the name actually means is that they're spying specialists."

"So we're robbing spies," Blake noted, quirking an eyebrow. "That seems like a bad idea."

"If we were going to be hitting the database where they keep the big offworld contract data that's 98% of their business, then yeah we'd be absolutely fucked," Kai agreed, zooming the image to about ten floors below the top of the building and highlighting an area, then panning downward to only twenty floors off the ground. "But what we're after is their 'local surveillance' datacenter."

"Meaning the information they gather and keep on Makarzia," Pyrrha said easily.

"Right. It's more perfunctory than anything else, it's one of the ways they train their newbs... HDS doesn't give a shit about Makarzia as anything but a convenient extrajudicial office location. But they still have a  _ lot _ of information all the gangheads want, both in the direct information they've gathered on Makarzia, and the 'linked files'."

"Linked files... you mean the stuff that's connected to the important people here?" Ilia spoke up, images of the various gangheads starting to pop up.

"Right. Information on Horace's out of sector rivals, the Neokuza politics on other worlds where they're active, where companies like NGR are trying to suppress droid rights movements Adam's involved in. If we can get into the local data room, we can download all that information as well as the bullshit like who's plotting to stab who in the back around the megasector."

"That sounds like the last link in this 'chain job', so what's the first?" Blake asked.

"This guy, Clarence Justin," Kai said, wiping the image of the monolith and instead putting up an employee profile and bust of a nondescript salary drone, practically a stereotype made flesh. "He is specifically one of those newbies that's being trained here on Makarzia... thing is, he lives in this megasector because it's closer to the corp building, but his assignment is datagathering stuff on one halfway across the damn planet."

"So the chances he'll know any of us are slim to none," Yang said with a grin.

"Bin-bon. Now ideally he'll never see any of us but one... the whole reason this job was feasible was that a hacker just stumbled on his profile while fucking around and sold it to Adam. But being a spy company, his employee profile lists a lot of things, like his taste in sexual partners, so we can have someone distract him."

"Uh, distract how thoroughly?" Yang asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Not that thoroughly, hopefully. The rules still apply to this job, we need to work at night, but luckily Justin usually works late. But in the event he does get home before we're done, our distraction is going to need to keep him busy long enough for us to finish and get gone, it's vital he never knows we were in his apartment."

"What exactly do we need from his apartment? Wouldn't he have his employee access card actually on him, if he's coming back from work?" Blake asked with a thoughtful frown.

"Yeah, the one for his basic office in the low levels of the building,  _ not _ his access card for the storage server room, those are more secure and employees aren't supposed to carry them casually. That and his backup handheld datadrive are the two things we need from his apartment," Kai continued, putting up images of an access card and a small device with plugin ports on either side. "If we have those, then once Niobe finds us a professional datathief they'll be able to use it to get us access to the room."

"But we can't just steal them, right?" Ruby piped up. "He'd totally know they were gone, especially if it's gonna take us a few days to do the other jobs in the chain!"

"Right, which is why the gangheads chipped in and bought this." Kai switched the image to one of a large black case with a control panel on top. "Molecular scanner. It will scan the card and drive, meaning that we'll be able to use a particularly high-grade 3D printer to make  _ exact _ copies of them. We put them back, close everything up, get out of the apartment, he never knows we were there."

"Okay, so sounds pretty simple for job one," Ilia allowed. "What's job two?"

"Leeeet's not get ahead of ourselves," Kai allowed as she broke the link and unslotted the datastick, putting it back in its case and tucking it away again. "We start thinking too many steps ahead and we start forgetting the one we're making right now."

"Reasonable," Pyrrha allowed with a bob of the head. "Do we start out tonight?"

Kai checked her comm for the time. "Nah, he's almost certainly home by now. We'll have to get started tomorrow night, as much as a pain in the ass as it is, the Street Demon ceasefire is running the hell out on us. Tonight we'll do a little shopping, then recon the building as well as we're able. Tomorrow, as soon as sundown hits, we're in there and searching the place."

_ Okay, five minutes to sunset, _ Kai sent to her crew from where most of them were loitering outside a store near the end of the block, just a bunch of night creatures waiting in the safer part of town for the clubs to be open.  _ Distraction team in place? _

_ Ready, _ Ilia sent back.

_ Why do I have to be the distraction?! _ Ruby answered for her part.

_ Because you're the only tittysmol we've got, and his profile said that was his deal. _

"'Tittysmol', how charming that that word has evolved," Weiss muttered aloud. "And what kind of company collects data on their employees' sexual interests?"

"The kind of company that spies on everyone and expects everyone to spy on them, so needs to know where their people are vulnerable. It's not just his sexual interests, it's his media preferences, gambling inclinations, and info about his family. But since Ruby challenging him to an intense Blockdrop tournament out of nowhere might stick out a little more than just a random attractive woman in need, we're exploiting the sexual preferences." 

Pyrrha checked her own comm. "Thirty seconds to official sundown."

"Okay, let's go," Kai said, waving the rest of her group along.

The apartment building was far nicer than their own, but not particularly ritzy... the guy was corp, but not particularly high-level, so Kai wasn't surprised to find that the cameras were easy to slip under and reposition, or that the electronic lock on the side door was easily within her skill to hack. They made their way up the empty, quiet, cool back stairs, eyes still wary.

Kai eased the door to the hallway of the floor they wanted open carefully, peeking out, then quickly gesturing to the others when it was empty. Weiss settled in beside the door to look casual and have a smoke... just someone's callgirl waiting either on her ride or for her client to show up. The rest of them made their way to the apartment, Blake stepping close to the door and leaning her head in, then giving a thumbs up.

Kai stepped to the door, then made a face. "Shit."

"What's got you saying 'shit' so early?" Yang said in half amusement, half concern.

"Physical locks, this place is either really old or halfway smart," the red-eyed woman muttered as she fished out her lockpicks. "I'm nowhere near as good at these as electronic ones, this'll take me a few."

"If I might?" Pyrrha suggested, stepping forward and cupping her hand over the doorknob. There was the faintest black glow around it, and a series of soft clicks, before the other redhead turned the knob and pushed the door open.

"... Works for me," Kai said with a grin, stuffing the lockpicks back into her head.

The apartment was clean, if not meticulously, still having a few pieces of clothing scattered here and there, and a pizza box resting on the table. "Do your best not to disturb anything, and if you have to move it remember where it was," Kai instructed as the little group slipped inside, Pyrrha closing the door after them. "Remember, the point is for him to never know we were here."

"I'll take the bedroom," Blake said as she strolled further in, Yang already splitting off and heading into the bathroom.

"It will take us much longer if we simply search randomly," Pyrrha noted even as she strolled into the attached kitchen area, which didn't look like it saw much use.

"Right. So let's see, our boy's being taught spycraft, so he knows he has to hide it rather than leaving it out somewhere in the open," Kai mused, red eyes slowly scanning the room. "It's not gonna be in a locked cabinet or drawer."

"Early students are also often very enthusiastic," Pyrrha noted as she leaned forward to peek behind some of the kitchen equipment.

"Right so, not behind a picture or something, not right out in the walls because that's one of the things they'd for sure tell him not to do. Something where he feels like he was smart and made an effort. But," Kai continued, turning back and forth and gesturing. "He's still a low-level flunkie, not enough years or pay invested that he goes to a ton of extra effort."

"So it will be out here," Pyrrha agreed as she walked back over to join Kai. "Relatively easily accessible if he had to come back and get his things, with a minimum of difficulty accessing it."

They regarded each other for a moment, then turned their heads, saying almost in unison, "Sofa."

Both spent a few moments looking the sofa itself over, before lifting it and sliding it back a bit. Pyrrha looked back and forth, tapping the side of her scanner mask a few times, before nodding. "There's a cut in the carpet on that end."

Kai knelt and peeled up a section of the carpet, then gave a whistle. "Guys, got a safe!" As Blake and Yang came in, the red-eyed woman looked it over, then muttered, "Shit."

"A two shit job already, I'm not liking how this is going."

"It's a facescan biometric, a lot harder to fuck with than fingerprints. This is gonna take me some time either way, but the biggest problem is that to do anything I've gotta access the internals, which means cutting a hole."

"And that means leaving visible evidence we were here," Blake muttered.

"Unless I go in from the side." Kai glanced aside at Pyrrha. "Can you lift this?"

"I should be able to... the problem will be if it's actually anchored inside. I could wind up tearing out supports, which if it winds up dropping the safe back in and breaking through..."

"Yeah, waaay bigger sign we were here. ... Okay, like we said, our guy's thorough but a bit lazy, we'll gamble on no supports. I need it out of there about two inches at least."

Pyrrha nodded, stretching out her hands, not quite touching the door of the safe. Slowly she began lifting her hands, that faint black glow surrounding the already dark metal as it lifted up. Kai hurriedly got out the heavier plasma cutter.

"Okay, good, that's enough. Can you hold that?" 

"For a few minutes, I think," Pyrrha murmured, her voice faintly strained. "I don't usually use it for extended periods, and it is a little heavy."

"Okay, Blake, lean in and tell me when there's a little rattle," Kai said hurriedly, waiting for Blake to press the side of her head to the safe before starting to thump along the side of it near the biometric scanner.

"... There."

"Yang, get me the visual wire ready," Kai ordered as she started using the cutter to make a small hole where Blake had indicated. Setting it aside, she immediately took the wire and fed it in. "Dataclamp ready," she murmured, hooking the current wire to her comm to find the circuit she needed. "There. Dataclamp." Feeding that in as well, she hooked it up and yanked out the visual wire. "Okay, set it back in."

Pyrrha carefully lowered the safe back in, letting it settle as Kai hooked in her comm to the dataclamp's cable instead. 

_ Target is on approach, _ Ilia sent.

" _ Shit _ ," Kai hissed, hurrying faster through the datascan.

"Three shit job, bad bad bad," Yang muttered.

_ Ruby I need at  _ **_least_ ** _ ten minutes, _ Kai sent.  _ Stall him like nobody's business! _

"Ummmm... oh gosh... mmm..."

Clarence blinked at the sight of an unfamiliar girl in the building lobby, scrolling through the resident directory. Of course his eyes wound up drawn to her perky ass in very snug, very low-riding jeans, the practically neon red straps of a thong appearing above it and riding high on her hips. He almost licked his lips as she wiggled her hips a little in apparent consternation.

His pulse quickened as she turned around and he saw that the bright pink midriff-baring top she was wearing had a triangular cutout that showed off the way it hugged up against her breasts. "Oh hiiiii," she chirped, smiling up at him. "Um, do you live here?"

'Silver? Those are some of the most realistic cybereyes I've ever seen,' Clarence thought distantly, fighting not to flush. "Yes, may I help you?"

"Well yannoooo, I kind of have a date here, buuuut they're not answering when I call, and I was hoping there was a way to call from the directory, sooooo... um, yanno, is there any way to call someone in the building?"

"No, sorry, there's a privacy rule about it," Clarence said regretfully, then cleared his throat and smiled. "But tell you what, why don't you wait for your date in my apartment? It will be safer and a lot comfier than the lobby here."

The girl giggled, lightly waving a hand in an almost-smack at his arm. "Oh gosh I couldn't do  _ that _ , my date'd be totally mad at me! If you wanna keep me saaaafe I don't mind if you hang out here, though!"

"Oh?" Clarence felt his heart flutter pleasantly. "But if you do want to wait for me, I'm sure it'd be fine if you came up with me... your date wouldn't have to know, we'd just sit for a bit and talk."

"Ummmmm..."

"Maybe have a drink while you wait, just a friendly one!"

_ Guys he is trying reeeeally hard to bring me back to the apartment with him, _ Ruby sent a little desperately.

_ He getting pushy? _ Kai sent back with a scowl even as she continued working her way through the electronic part of the safe's security.

_ He's keeping his distance from her, so I don't think he's gonna get physical, but I think if she puts him off much more he's gonna give up and leave, _ Ilia chimed in.

Yang looked around at the others, mind working both how best to protect her sister (whatever Ilia said) and finish the job. Someone needed to go down and back up Ruby... it was an almost entirely Human part of the megasector, Blake would stick out like a sore thumb, Pyrrha's scars made her look a bit too disreputable for the building's residents, and Kai's clothing was way too punk.

It was a very odd sensation to realize that she was, in fact, the most normal looking person in the room.

_ Rubes, I'm on my way to help, stall him  _ **_just_ ** _ a little longer, _ Yang sent as she stood up and unzipped her jacket, shrugging out of it.

"What are you doing?" Blake asked, blinking as Yang tossed her the bright yellow pseudoleather garment.

"Joining the distraction team, get that thing open," Yang said as she strode back out of the door and into the hall. Luckily there was only a very brief wait before the elevator opened.  _ Okay, Ruby, if you need to tell him you'll go up to the apartment with him to keep him on the line, do it now, _ she sent as she hit the button for the lobby.

"I mean... okay, I  _ guess _ , just for like a minute," the busty, petite girl finally allowed, smiling sheepishly as she settled in beside Clarence to walk over to the elevator.

"Great! I mean, it'll be good to know you're safer, you know how it can be at night, even in a nice neighborhood like this," Clarence said, fighting to keep from gushing a bit as he turned and hit the elevator call button.

It opened, and he blinked a bit at the sight of the tall, short-haired blonde woman in a sleeveless shirt and with an expensive-looking cyberlimb, purple eyes narrowing as she saw the two of them.

"Hey, fucker, what do you think you're doing talking to my date?" she almost growled, stalking forward, Clarence scrambling backwards a little.

"Uh, whoa, whoa, it was just talking, she couldn't get ahold of you so-"

"So what, you thought you'd ninja my delivery?" The blonde's scowl deepened, purple eyes flashing as she hooked an arm around the girl's middle and hauled her in against her side possessively. "Maybe get a free tumble on my cred, huh?"

"That's, uh, that's not what I-"

"Oh gosh he was just being nice, you weren't  _ answering _ ," the silver-eyed girl pouted, squirming in the big butch's embrace. "I called and called!"

"I hired you for this cute ass, not to answer your calls," the blonde half-growled, dropping her hand and giving said bit of anatomy a squeeze, making the slighter girl yelp.

"H-hey now," Clarence murmured.

"Oh, what, you got a problem now?"

"I... well, no, just-"

_ Hurry it up up there, I've got him intimidated and sort of on the hook but I push it much further he might call the cops. _

_ Almost there. _ Kai finally accessed the safe's security storage and located the profile she needed, and beckoned quickly to Pyrrha. "Mask, now."

Pyrrha pulled off the scanner mask and passed it over, Kai running another cable to its attachment port, tossing back her hood so she could set it on her own face and lean over the safe's sensor. A series of bright blue dots appeared on the faceplate, and a second later the safe clicked, Kai yanking the door open. "Scanner case, now!" she snapped, Blake already swinging it over, Kai snatching up the badge and datadrive and setting both inside. "Time!"

Blake watched the readout appear, then gave Kai a strained look. "Just over five minutes."

" _ Shit! _ " Kai ground her teeth, then sent,  _ Yang, Ruby, we need at least another five minutes, do whatever it takes to keep his ass down there that long! _

'Aw fuck,' Yang thought, trading a glance with her sister out of the corner of her eye.  _... Okay, so, you know what we have to do, right? _

_ I have a kind of suspicion yeah. _

Suddenly switching tactics, Yang slowly smirked at the salary drone. "Or, what... is this getting you off or something?" 

"Uh... e-excuse me?"

"You like being bossed around or somethin'? Or is it that you like seein' me boss my date around maybe?" Yang slid her golden fingers very visibly up and down Ruby's side, trying not to notice it causing a very spontaneous shiver and a bit of a raise in her sister's skin temperature. "Thinkin' maybe we go halfsies or something?"

"... um..."

"I mean, I know lots of guys like to watch. Maybe I give you a few orders while I do, huh? Or... what, you wanna give me the orders? Liiiiike... what?"

One could almost hear the little bit of a snap inside his brain. "Kiss."

"Oh yeah? Hm... okay."

_ [Internal screaming]  _ x2

Doing everything she could to keep her motions languid and natural, Yang brought her head down and covered Ruby's lips with hers.

"Come on, come on," Kai muttered as she stared at the countdown timer. The moment it beeped she made half-panicked 'gimme' gestures. "Okay c'mon c'mon let's  _ go _ !" Catching the items as Blake tossed them over, she settled them back where she'd taken them, in as close to the same position as she could manage, before slamming the door closed. Flicking out a knife, she cut off the cable right at the edge of the side of the safe, the end of it disappearing.

Blake quickly smoothed out the carpet before scrambling back with the case as Pyrrha and Kai lifted the couch back into position, all of them headed for the door.

_ We are en route to the stairwell, you are clear to cut him loose. _

Resisting the urge to yank her head back up, Yang instead raised it smoothly and smirked at Clarence. "Y'know what, changed my mind. She's way too sweet to share. ... G'wan, shoo," she declared imperiously, waving her hand towards the elevator.

The salary drone opened and closed his mouth several times, then huffed and slumped his way to the elevator.

The moment the doors closed behind him, Ruby and Yang leapt several feet apart. "We  _ never _ mention this again!" the blonde declared, sweeping her hands apart.

"Agreed!" Ruby blurted, nodding enthusiastically.

"Agreed," Ilia added blandly as she destealthed in the corner, both sisters jumping with their near heart attacks.

Once they were well away, Kai called Niobe, looping her into the comm group of their helmets. " _ Hey kid, how'd the job go? _ "

"We got it done. It would have been a walk in the goddamn park if we could have actually done it about an hour after he left for work." Kai pursed her lips. "Niobe, if we're gonna have any more jobs like this in the chain, I need permission to work in daylight. I know what the unwritten rules say, but this damn simple stealth B&E almost turned into a clusterfuck even doing it at technical sunset instead of waiting for full dark."

" _ Mmm. You know how the gangs can be about the unwritten rules. But considering it's a full intergang job, I'll talk to them, see if I can get everyone on board for a vote. The next job is a nighttime one easy anyway. _ "

"Yeah, about that, that one'll really go easier if we've got a data specialist already on board. Had any luck yet?"

" _... Yeah, kinda. It's sort of a... delicate issue. Listen, have the rest of your crew head home. You come to the Embargo, I'll explain things there. _ "

"O... kay?" Kai frowned at that, but nodded. "See you in a bit then."

* * *

"I trusted Niobe absolutely. To the point that I figured if she wanted to lure me into some sort of trap and kill me, I probably had it coming. I also knew she'd have never turned on me of her own accord, so if she was calling me to a different location without my crew it was of her own free will.

"So mostly as I split off from the others and headed to the Embargo, I was confused. This obviously had something to do with hiring a datathief for the chain job, but why Niobe would want to intro me to them separately, I had no clue. 

"Unless it was like... fucking Salem or somebody."

* * *

Kai swung off her speedercycle, the bouncer at the front already stepping aside to let her past. She frowned a little at the club being completely empty, save for Niobe leaning against the wall smoking a cigar.

"Y'know, shit's not half bad," the big genemod mused aloud, ears twitching as she tapped some ash off. "I might actually hafta start coming here, considering I own it now. Hey, whatcha think, me in a suit?"

Kai grinned. "I think you can pull off anything, Ma, but you'd be wanting someone to pull it off of ya pretty quick."

"Ain't that the truth." Niobe snorted and straightened up, puffing a few more times before frowning. "Okay, so... I've had an offer from a datathief. A pretty damn good one, both the offer and her rep. Just... this is a pretty weird one, kid. I couldn't risk anyone reacting badly and blowing the deal."

"You're makin' me nervous here, Niobe," Kai admitted.

"What, you havin' one of those bad feelings in your gut?" Niobe asked, eyes narrowing just a little.

"... No," the redhead admitted, bobbing her head, though wondering when her mother had become so sensitive to those. "This is just... weird."

"Yeah, it is. All I'll say is, keep your cool, and I mean it. Weapons in holsters, hands at your sides."

"... Right."

Niobe led the way down the small flight of steps from the entry and further into the small club, off to the side. Fairly quickly Kai saw why all the cautions had been necessary.

"You have gotta be  _ shitting _ me!"


	12. Printing Pressed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai finds that Niobe has recruited a very unlikely but very skilled individual to serve as their datathief on the chain job, someone that turns out to be from Kai's past. What's worse, Kai finds out that to do the next link in the chain, she'll have to undergo a procedure that will put some serious strain on her relationship with Weiss.
> 
> Things don't get a lot better from there.

April 24, 2993, 22:09 (Local Makarzia time)

"The fuck is she even doing in Tailtown?!" Kai demanded.

"Well hello to you too," the Street Demon replied, her voice even more electronically modulated than the usual. She was a few inches shorter than Kai, though that was also with a bit of hunch to her back. Her hair was a green so dark it was almost black, the short horns coming out of the sides of it to angle forward and slightly up black with little glowing lines of green, shifting at right angles here and there. Her cybereyes were black with green pixel-corneas, her vape mask black with green lines that looked like they were meant to evoke a circuit board etched on it. She was wearing a longcoat, her legs looking like they were cyberlimbs, the feet slightly altered into gripping claws and cyberhands prosthetic as well. A long, cable-like tail curled and arced through the air, its tip splitting into multiple connector types.

"Relax. I invited her, on the promise she behave herself while she's here," Niobe said, albeit a bit grimly. "This is currently the lead contender for your datathief position on this chain, kid."

"A fucking Street Demon, seriously? She's probably just looking for some fresh way to fuck us over, can't wait for the ceasefire to run out," the redhead snapped.

"Now as I recall the last time we worked together, it was you that did the fucking over, Kai," the horned woman said, raising smooth brows.

Kai blinked, brain suddenly trying to sort through the electronic distortion, and look at the shape of the eyes instead of just the look of them. "Wait...  _ Sia _ ?!"

"Surpri~se," the Street Demon chirped, raising her hands and wiggling her clawlike fingers. "But it's Malware now, thank you."

"... I did  _ not _ fuck you over," Kai snapped, raising a hand and giving a double-shake point at the other woman. "You told me those security droids were all inactive and I was clear to just stroll on through, and then they booted up and tried to cancel my ass like a first season sci-fi show." She shoved her hands in her pockets. "It was all I could do to get out of there with my skin."

"Yeah, and left me behind locked in the data room."

"That was on  _ you _ ."

"Ladies," Niobe said evenly, looking back and forth. "It sounds like fuckups were performed on all sides. A job went bad, it happens. Can we discuss the current one?"

"Why in the hell would we take on a Street Demon as part of our crew, even temporarily?" Kai huffed. "You're not thinking of giving  _ them _ a copy of the data?"

"No. I won't even look at the data any more than is necessary to process it through the download, and I won't reveal anything of what I see, that's part of our agreement for bringing me on for this job," Malware spoke up, her electronic voice shifting to a professional tone. "I'll also keep confidential anything I learn about you or your crew in the course of working with you. And have we ever broken our word once we've given it?"

Kai pursed her lips a bit, eyeing the green and black clad woman before saying, "And?"

"The ceasefire will continue until the night after the job is successfully completed, I've already gotten that assurance from the rest," Malware continued, her cable-tail flicking back and forth. "And I don't need a cut of the pay or a copy of the data. All the Demons are asking in return for my help is that once we've retrieved the data, you allow me to inject a virus into the Hatanashi deebee that will wipe the entire monolith's drives."

"So... you're willing to extend the ceasefire and work for free all to, what... wreak some havoc on a corp?" Kai asked with a frown.

"If you want to look at it that way, yes. Like I said, that's the offer... you know I was one of the best back then, and I'm much better now. Oh fuck you, there was  _ no _ way for me to know they'd installed backup autonomous systems in the droids, it was done third party and even the receipts weren't logged in the system yet when we did the job," Malware huffed in annoyance as Kai narrowed her eyes. "This is the deal, take it or leave it. You can either have the best and work in peace, or settle for some also-ran and deal with my new friends all over your ass through the last half of it."

"... A moment," Kai said with forced primness, turning and stalking off to the side, Niobe following. "Do you trust this?"

"'Trust' might be a strong word," Niobe murmured back wryly, tucking her cigar into one of the ashtrays on a nearby table. "But she's right... so far every time the Demons have given their word on something they've kept it. Plus turns out that she was the one who was tracking our comm calls and pinpointing where the calls were being routed through... and to apply for the job she broke through the Freedroid firewall and messaged me directly."

"... Shit, are you saying the Freedroid security is useless?"

"No, it took her awhile, and she said that the only reason she did it was as an application... apparently the Freedroid base being in Tailtown means the net security they provide is protected by the treaty." Niobe tossed a glance over at the cyborg, then back at Kai. "I told you I'd get you the best... Si-... she was close to being that even before the Demons recruited her and apparently tricked her out with high-end datathief cybergear. And we can't just brush off the extension of the ceasefire to get this done, either, and if it involves getting a particularly rotten corp off Makarzia, I don't think any of the gangheads will lose sleep on it."

Kai nodded slowly, then turned back to the other woman and stepped back over. "They get you free, then?"

"There are no slaves in the Street Demons, Kai," Malware answered evenly, cybereyes flickering just briefly. "Lots of former ones. But no current ones."

Kai nodded slowly, and said, sincerely, "I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad you're out. And alright, I'll work with you on this job." She held out a hand.

"Ohhhh, are you sure about that, Kai?" Malware chuckled just a little. "I know how you feel about promises made of your own free will."

"Yeah. Let's fuckin' shake on it." Kai narrowed her eyes a little. "Because coming from that life yourself, I'm betting you don't feel a lot fucking different."

The humor immediately went out of the visible part of Malware's face. Instead, after a moment she just nodded. "... Fair enough." She reached out, carbon fiber fingers wrapping around Kai's hand and giving it a single shake. "Pax, then. I'm your crew until the night after the job's done."

"You're my crew until the night after the job's done," Kai agreed. "So let's get it done."

"You really think we can trust her?" Yang asked about an hour later as the whole crew gathered in Kai's apartment. 

"Let's put it this way, if Spontaneous Combustion gave you her word, would you trust her, or just believe she'd hold to her word? Noting that there's a difference there," Kai added wryly.

"... Hm, put like that, I guess I see your point," Yang murmured, scratching her cheek a bit. "I wouldn't necessarily trust her to watch my back if that wasn't part of the agreement, but I would expect her to hold up her end of things. I guess."

"Yeah, so, I figure we can expect Si-... Malware to hold up what she's agreed to. Performing her role as the crew's expert datathief. But don't expect her to save our asses if we get ourselves into trouble... part of her agreement is that she's on this job until the end, even if we fuck up and get replaced she just moves on to the next crew."

"It sounds like you have a history with this woman," Pyrrha noted.

Kai took a deep breath and nodded. "When I knew her, her name was Sia, and she was another Guildcerted slave, though her owner was more active and... probably not as bad as the old man. He'd loan her out to other mercs for missions, and we wound up working together a few times. The last time there was a... mistake. I ditched the mission and saved my own skin. If it was now I'd have probably played it different, but... back then my only goal was getting by day to day so I could take care of Zee."

"So could this all be just a way to get back at you?" Weiss asked in a worried tone.

"I don't think so... she's been cybered up pretty heavily now and that influences my ability to read people, but she wasn't putting off aggression or resentment towards me. Some annoyance, yeah, but I barely even process  _ that _ directed at me anymore," Kai added wryly. "But... I don't think it's just for kicks either."

"You think the Street Demons are out to get HDS?" Blake asked, ears twitching. "And not just as part of their usual destructive streaks?"

"Think about it... Spontaneous Combustion's thing against Mikon and Yang was pretty meticulous, but that didn't involve a bunch of destruction either. That was obviously something personal to her. Now the widespread violence and clashes with other gangs, that might not be personal, but it's obvious that the Demons do have personal motivations and the rest of them help out."

"So someone... probably one of the glowy ones... has it out for this spy company," Ruby mused. "Is it Malware, or is she just helping out one of the others, do you think?"

"If I had to guess, this is Malware's beef. Only makes sense for the datathief to have issue with a spy company. Maybe did her dirty on a subcontracting job, or jackfried some friend of hers, something like that." Kai pinched the bridge of her nose. "Anyway, for now we play it straight, and we let her do the same, but we keep a close eye on her. She said she'd have some more prep available to do tonight for the next link in the job chain, but that she'd be calling me soon. Why don't all of you catch a nap or relax or something, I'll psycomm you if we need to get back together."

The others filtered out, leaving Kai and Weiss alone in the small apartment. Weiss scooted in, laying a hand on Kai's belly and her head on the taller woman's shoulder. "... It's upsetting you, isn't it?" Weiss said quietly. "Not working with a Street Demon, but..."

"That's upsetting me too, let's not be disingenuous," Kai said dryly, using one of those vocabulary words Cammy teased her for, but came from being raised by two slaves with surprisingly broad educations. "I've been dealing with their bullshit long enough it'd be a lie to say I don't have some prejudice towards all of them. But..."

The redhead fell silent, letting her head slump backwards. "... Weiss, is it my fault she wound up becoming a Street Demon in the first place?"

"I don't think we can assume that," Weiss said immediately. She hesitated a bit, then sighed. "If you mean... did the way your last job go down put her in a bad situation... then I don't think that's something I can answer for you. ... You said it yourself, that you probably wouldn't do the same today."

"I'd like to think I've grown beyond that. Options seem so much... narrower... and yet clearer when you've got a slave chip in your neck." 

"But that's the thing, isn't it, Kai? Even if you'd saved her from that situation, you'd have both still been  _ slaves _ ," Weiss said, gently but insistently. "You couldn't have done anything to free her. If the Street Demons promised her that, you don't know that she wouldn't have leaped at it anyway."

'Wonder what I'd have done,' Kai thought, frowning. ... Was she a "calamity", though? That seemed to be their thing. She couldn't recall anything particularly calamitous she'd ever done...

As she was turning that over in her head, her comm started chiming. Taking it out, she grimaced a little at the name on it, then set it on the coffee table. "You're on speaker with me and Weiss, Malware."

" _ Hey Kai. Evening Weiss. Not catching you two in the middle of something I hope? _ "

Kai scowled a little at the thought that her relationship with Weiss was known to the Demons... but then she wasn't exactly subtle about going around introducing Weiss as her girl, so. "No. We were waiting for your call. What's up, you said you'd have info on step two of the job."

" _ Step two of the job is, as you know, getting someone with a high grade 3D printer to make us copies of the card and datadrive. Not an easy thing, and in fact most of our options are outside of the megasector, making it a dangerous proposition. _ "

"Besides travel time, other megasectors' gangs get fuckin' territorial," Kai muttered aside to Weiss, before saying aloud, "You've got another idea?"

" _ Yeah, there's one company on the planet that has portable printers with the detail and precision we need, Dynamik. And as luck would have it, they're due to meet with a pair of off-planet individuals in a hotel over in Sparkle City. _ "

"So you're thinking we IDjack the corp duo due for the printer meeting, step into their spot, get our stuff printed instead."

" _ Still fast on the uptake as usual, I see, good. _ "

"This got any chance of sending up a red flag at Hatanashi?"

" _ I don't doubt they'll make a note of someone IDjacking a pair of outcompany corps, but there's nothing specifically linking it to them. Dynamik has a strict no-questions-asked policy of what they're printing, the rep shouldn't even blink when we pull out an ID card and datadrive. We should be good. _ "

"But what about the people we'd be replacing?" Weiss speaks up. "How do we keep them from interrupting?"

" _ That's up to you guys, however, I'll tell you this much, I've done some digging on our duo. One of 'em has a hero complex, likes 'em petite, brown, and in trouble. Other's got a thing for genemods and demi-humans. So I figure to pull off this IDjack proper, Kai, I'm gonna need you and your Faunus friend to meet me at the Altalifa Bodyshop in Arton. Unless any of the rest of you would like to get modded with ears and a tail. _ "

'That should be an interesting conversation,' Kai thought flatly, before sighing and nodding. "Okay Mal, we'll see you there."

" _... 'Mal', huh? _ " Malware said with a chuckle before disconnecting.

"'Mal'?" Weiss echoed, with something dangerously close to a smile.

"... Just slipped out," Kai muttered, clearing her throat. "Be back soon, hopefully."

"I can't believe we're talking about doing this," Blake muttered as she followed Kai along the sidewalk. 

"Look, it'll just be a detachable implant, you can have Twitch remove the tailbone jack later if you want," Kai assured her.

"'Tailbone jack'... why do you make that sound like something people use for other purposes?" Blake asked with a bit of a frown as she stepped into the entryway of what looked a lot like a tattoo parlor... then blinked at the sight of Malware. "Oh."

"Nice to meet you," Malware chuckled, flicking her cable-tail back and forth a bit before coiling it around her middle. "I'm Malware, you must be Blake."

"... Yes."

"Alright, Blake, since I'm guessing Kai has decided that means you will in fact be distracting one of our corp duo, this place does nice clean tailbone jacks, used them myself for the first of my upgrades. I've also used my connections to get you another upgrade I think you'll find very useful for this mission, they can install it here."

"This all we're gonna need?" Kai prompted.

"No. I didn't just call you here along with Blake just to make introductions. Dynamik is extremely low-detail on who they do business with by design, but they know just enough to be able to not be completely hoodwinked. I can switch out your biometric data in the system to a certain extent, but there's something I can't actually fake... the fact that they're expecting a man and a woman."

"That's... a problem, isn't it?" Blake asked, blinking... then her eyes widening as she turned her head to stare at Kai slumped in place. "Wait they can  _ do _ that here?!"

"Fuck meeee," Kai groaned, rubbing her face with one hand. "Goddammit if you are fucking with me on this one, Mal..."

"I'm not fucking with you. They know they're expecting a Human Male and Human Female. Even if you crossdressed, their biometric scanner would still mismatch on a chromosomal read, that's hardcoded. So your options are bringing in another male Human at the last minute, or..." Malware shrugged, lifting one carbon fiber clawed hand to gesture at the shop interior.

"... This place fucks up my stranding, I'm gonna have your ass, Mal," Kai almost growled, stabbing a finger at the Street Demon.

"They're good, they're good, I checked them, I swear," Malware urged, holding up both hands. "C'mon, let's go, no time like the present, and I've already gotten you scheduled," she added, turning and sauntering further into the shop, showing off the layered black metal and glowing squares running down her spine outside the jacket. ... Either that or they were her spine now.

'How cybered up is she now?' Kai thought with a frown as she followed after. The woman she'd known had a few implants, as any really excellent datathief did, but had been fairly whole of body. If Kai was guessing, as Malware it wasn't just the feet and hands, but probably the arms and legs too, and the mask looked like it was being held on by implant hookups rather than just static fields or grav panels.

Well. She supposed if you were gonna get jacked or tanked, at least take the suggestion of where to do it from a non-twitchy cyborg.

Weiss blinked as there was a knock on the door, followed by a slightly unfamiliar voice. "Weiss. It's Kai."

"... Uh-huh," Weiss replied evenly, sliding her switchblade into her hand.

"No, seriously. It's me. Uh... I had to kind of undergo a... procedure... for the job tomorrow night and... ... look just don't stab me when I come in, okay, Snowbird?"

Weiss pursed her lips and didn't make any promises. Still, when the door opened the hair was in the same style, and the exact shade, and the red eyes, and the jacket was the same even if the other clothes were just a basic t-shirt and jeans, but-

"Seriously do  _ not _ stab me," Kai muttered in such perfectly fitting annoyance that it could only be her.

"Kai?" Weiss swallowed, standing up, staring... further up than she was used to. "What... the  _ fuck _ ?"

"Yeaaah kind of my reaction too," Kai grumbled, rubbing the back of his head as he let out a sigh.

Kai was now at least as tall as Pyrrha, maybe even having an inch on her. His build was still on the lean side, but the shoulders under the jacket were visibly broader, the muscle tone a little more defined under the snug T-shirt. Still, Weiss saw everything of her lover in the mannerisms, the way of speaking, the slight shift of the body as he folded his arms over his chest.

"The corp duo that we're gonna be replacing tomorrow night was a man and a woman, and according to Malware, there's just no way to get past the biometric scan they'll have us do without having one human male and one human female, so..." Kai trailed off, spreading his arms. "That's the job."

"It... I... I mean you can change  _ back _ , right?" Weiss blurted.

"It was a clean procedure, yeah, so in a couple of days." Kai sighed and shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. "Listen, Snowbird, why don't I crash with Ilia until then? I mean, I don't want this to be any more awkward than it already is."

Weiss hesitated only the barest of instants before shaking her head quickly. "No, no. Kai, this is  _ your _ apartment too. I..." She trailed off, swallowed. "I... think maybe you should shop for some pajama pants or something though before we go to bed?"

"You sure?" Kai asked in a slightly wan tone, smile a little sad as he looked over at her.

That, more than anything, made up her mind. "Kai Sterling, this is not some... sexual infatuation," Weiss huffed, crossing over to the redhead and laying her hands on his chest. "I love  _ you _ . I want  _ you _ with me. ... I do not want to have sex with you like this, since you're turning back," she added a bit flatly.

Kai chuckled, shaking his head. "Yeah, okay, fair enough," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "I'll go duck into Hell Blazer for some work togs... we'll have to go shopping for corp-type clothes when the sun is up tomorrow."

"Then I'm taking the place of the other representative?"

"Yeah, babe, sorry if it sounds mean, but you've got the most experience with callous corp types out of all of us, I'm gonna be taking a lot of my cues from you."

Weiss snorted as well. "Alright, fair enough. Um... I'll see you when you get back, then," she murmured, stepping back.

"Right."

* * *

"'So what if I couldn't change back?'

"Would have been a really dick thing to say.

"A quick, quality teegee flip like that wasn't cheap, but Malware was apparently footing the bill for these sorts of expenses, which was another benefit of a deal that more and more reminded me of the one that I'd made with Salem... a deal with the devil. Just a bit more aesthetically accurate this time.

"But yeah I'd known stepping into the tube that this would be rough on Weiss. I'd been sincere when I suggested crashing with Ilia, and I wouldn't have held it against her in the least. Still, it was hard not to be insecure.

"What if something got messed up and I  _ was _ stuck in a male body for... well, for awhile? It's not that I'd have blamed Weiss if she couldn't take that... she was a lesbian, I was physically male, that was a pretty damn big hurdle. Plus this had to be dredging up feelings of a time only a few months behind her, feelings of trying to make herself be something she wasn't. 

"Doesn't mean it wouldn't have ripped my heart out. So I was pretty relieved when she said she wanted me to stay in our apartment with her still. I was just going to have to try to be very, very good."

* * *

Kai sleepily rolled over, pressing up against Weiss's back. Like most afternoons, started kissing along the side of her neck, her shoulder, reveling in the feel of that petite body against her. 'She's so short,' she thought adoringly. '... Shorter than usual, feels like...'

Weiss squirmed pleasantly, giving off a few soft, happy sounds... before abruptly going rigid. "Um. ... Kai."

"Mmm."

"... Ahem."

Kai blinked a few times, trying to focus, in the process waking up a bit more... and realizing the distinctly urgent but foreign feeling of having a hardon. And having it pressed against a very nice-feeling, very pert butt.

"Shit," he hissed, hopping backwards in bed and sitting up abruptly. "Sorry, sorry!"

"Ahem." Weiss sat up, cheeks red, but mostly composed. "It's okay. Just... startling. Maybe... start the afternoon with a cold shower today?"

"... Right. Yes. Good idea." Kai cleared his throat, then murmured, "Snowbird you're gonna want to look in that direction..."

"... Right."

In the bathroom, Kai slumped against the wall, sighing, then scowling down at his erection as he pulled the waistband of the sleeping pants over it. 'Thanks a fucking lot. ... Okay, quit it, I need to pee. ... God dammit how does this thing even work?' He was familiar with various mechanics of them from the other side, but.

Eventually he figured it out, huffing as he drained himself... well, of one particular liquid anyway. Following Weiss's advice, Kai let the water stay cold, wincing as he stepped under it and began washing his hair.

'The really frustrating thing is there was a time that I probably would have had a ball with this. ... So to speak,' he thought sardonically, glancing downward. Kai had no particular preference for men or women, and the vague idea of spending a few days trying out the other side with both had been one of those fun little fantasies back when that was still a thing. And here it was, but now he was in a committed relationship with a woman who was exclusively attracted to other women.

'Maybe I'm running out of that accrued karma,' he thought ruefully as he rinsed out his hair and stepped out to dry himself, making sure to pull the sleeping pants back on before stepping out again.

Weiss was already up and dressed, and holding out a cup of caff. "Where are we going shopping?"

"Over in Sparkle City. Mal scheduled us an appointment at a boutique, so since we'll have an appointment they'll probably figure we're rich kids playing at being night lifestylers. She's gonna handle paying for it too, has a false credit account set up."

"Ah. ... You enjoy working with her, don't you?" Weiss asked, leaning against the counter.

Kai almost brushed it off instinctively... then sighed and settled on the couch, taking a gulp of his coffee. "I always liked working with her, yes. We had similar senses of humor, we understood each other pretty well... I always perked up a little bit hearing she'd be on the roster of a job."

"... You know, Kai," Weiss said slowly. "I think, despite the things separating you now... it's okay to be happy to see your friend again."

Kai stared into his mug, then slowly shook his head. "I can't afford to think like that."

"Why?" Weiss whispered. "Why can't you just enjoy the time you have together now?"

"... Because once it's over, she's a Street Demon again, and we go back to trying to kill each other," Kai said with a sigh, knocking back the rest of the coffee. "And I don't need that on my mental plate too."

_ Ready to get suited up, pretty people? _

"Fuck!" Kai yelped, jumping a little in the back of Jita's van, startling the tiger-eared woman driving a little. "... Sorry," he added, before pursing his lips and sending,  _ Goddammit you're on these too? _

_ I was monitoring your tank time to make sure they didn't disappoint me, so I know all your implants now. Don't worry, as per our agreement, I'll never tell the other Street Demons you have psycomms. _

_ Some warning would still have been nice, _ Weiss sent stiffly.

_ Apologies, _ Malware sent, sounding just almost sincere.  _ Now, corp style on the planet our marks are from is to the grey, three piece with pants for both men and women, and no tie or scarf. Stick within those bounds and you should look natural. _

_ I know a thing or two about suits, with those parameters we'll manage just fine, thank you, _ Weiss added in a prim tone.

_ Indeed? Alright then. Let me know when you're done, we'll meet up and I'll do a bit of fine tuning on your fake identities. _

"You seem a little... standoffish, despite telling me I should enjoy working with her again," Kai noted dryly.

"I don't know what it is, something about her tone kind of set me off," Weiss grumbled.

"Okay, thanks Jita, let us off here," Kai said, leaning forward to pat the genemod's shoulder. As much fun as it sounded, they couldn't go cruising around on speedercycles in high-end corp style suits, they'd both decided getting a lift to the boutique was a better idea.

"Give us a moment please, we'd like to see how they move," Weiss said evenly to the boutique worker, in the sort of tone that seemed to put the man at ease with its light imperiousness. Once he'd left, she stepped in towards Kai, turning her head back and forth. "How's it feel?"

"Mmm." Kai frowned a little as he lifted his hands. "Should the sleeves ride up that much?"

"Yes." Weiss considered as she slid her hands down his sides. "Is this such a nice part of town that he'll look at us oddly if I ask him to cut it so it will hide a holster and gun?"

"It's Makarzia, so no. You think I oughtta wear it under the jacket or under the overcoat, though?"

"Mm. Good question." Weiss pursed her lips, then lifted her head.  _ Malware, are you still in range? _

_ Yes, what's up? _

_ These people we're replacing, do we know what they're actually there for? What they do? _

_ Military subcontractors. _

_ Alright, thank you. Could you arrange something like this appointment somewhere at a high-end gun store? _

_ On it. _

_ Thank you. _

"Wow, you two are almost getting along," Kai said with a grin, though it ramped down a little as Weiss seemed to avoid looking him in the face. "... Sorry, guess it's not a good time to tease."

"... You look really good, you know," the petite woman said after a moment as she tugged the lapels a little.

"Weiss, you don't have to-"

"I can acknowledge that you're extremely handsome without... you know." Weiss pursed her lips, looking up at him... then sighing and rolling her eyes. "You just had to go and get even  _ taller _ , though."

"Sorry." He let out a little chuckle. "I guess it's aggravating all over."

"Yes. ... Because part of me is still attracted to you, but the other part of me is... upset... at that." Weiss smoothed out the lapels and patted him on the chest. "Well. I'll manage. It will be a few days and things will be back to normal."

"Mm." 

"... You have a really unhappy look in your eyes," Weiss whispered, peeking up at him again.

"Sorry. Just... ... I guess, y'know, with what we've talked about before, how my identity is sort of... built new on top of the blank..." Kai shrugged a little, teeth brushing just a little across his lower lip. "So it doesn't really bother me being like this like it would most people I guess. And... I dunno, maybe I'm a little sad thinking that if I'd been a guy from the start... ... shit, nevermind," he murmured, shaking his head.

"... I don't want to think about that either," Weiss whispered. "So let's... just move on."

Kai nodded... then smiled, trying to not let it be wan. "You look great too."

"Thank you." Weiss gave him a sparkly grin, then turned her head and called, "Excuse me."

"Yes, ma'am?" the boutique worker acknowledged, stepping back in.

"We're going to be fitting him a shoulder holster after this, cross-drawing into the right hand, worn over the jacket but under the overcoat, could you alter to accommodate and conceal, please?"

"But of course, ma'am."

'I fuckin' love Makarzia,' Kai found himself thinking as he turned to the mirror and examined himself in the sleek grey suit.

"I would not trust this damn high cal if it so much as got dusty, but it is pretty as hell," Kai noted once they were back in the van after their next stop, looking down the top of the weapon. "Holy hell even the sights are fuckin' artistic."

"Stop playing with your new toy in the car, dear," Weiss said dryly. She glanced out the window. "This looks like the address where Malware said we should meet her."

"You guys sure about this?" Jita said as she drew to a stop, the ponytailed genemod frowning and glancing over her shoulder. "Going into a Street Demon's den?"

"For right now, Street Demon or no, she's part of the crew, so we'll act like it," Kai answered, slipping the gun into its holster under his overcoat. "But keep your ears up, Jita."

"Yup."

The two of them strolled into the apartment building, looking very out of place since they were back in the low rent part of town. Kai rapped on the door of room 303, and a moment later it opened, Malware pulling it open with her cabletail. "C'mon in."

"Interior decorator on strike?" Kai said dryly as he and Weiss walked in, the apartment mostly empty save for a folding table with several open cases on it.

"So hard to keep a good one," Malware tched, closing the door and withdrawing her tail. "Well you two look corp as hell."

"Fuck you."

"Thank you. Anyway, you both look well within tolerances for our corps, so the only thing left to do is outfit you with your chips," the horned woman declared as she turned back to the cases on the table, hefting up an injector gun.

"What chips are these?" Weiss asked, pursing her lips.

"Small biotek chips... lots of corps use them for basic stuff like key replacements and ID verification, so Dynamik won't blink twice at detecting them. These will help sync up my hacked info in their system though... tell them you're definitely who you scan as. So, right hand," Malware said to Weiss, beckoning.

Sighing, Weiss held out her hand. "And these are removable, right?" she added, eyeing the injector as it was pressed to the back of her hand just below her wrist.

"Yeah, your medisurgeon can pop 'em right back out when we're done with this job." Malware turned, taking Kai's right hand next, stepping in a bit.

'Um. Did she get this close to Weiss?' Kai thought a little worriedly as Malware shifted a bit here and there... then his gaze went down, only to be distracted by the pinch of the chip being implanted. He almost didn't notice when her cable-tail uncoiled from around his ankle.  _ The hell was that?  _ he sent directly to her, trying not to frown outwardly.

_ Hm? ... Oh, that. Has its own mind sometimes. Literally, it has an AI that keeps it out of my way when I'm not paying attention to it, guess I'd better give it a scan later. _

Kai decided he really didn't need to think about anything involving any other possible interpretation and instead said, "So that all we need?"

"Other than these." Malware held up a pair of wallets. "ID cards, couple of fake debtcards that don't actually work, the only ones that do are the Cobalt ones, if you need to buy a drink or hand one to the hotel staff, use those. They'll stand up to a few uses but the more they're used the more likely they are to ping fake, so don't go on a spree before the job." 

"Got it." Kai examined the fake ID, taking in all the details, then tucked the wallet into an inside pocket of his jacket. 

"Should we put bills in them?" Weiss asked, flipping open part of the wallet.

"Nah. Offplanet corp types never fuckin' tip and they abuse the hell out of their company cards, so none of 'em bother carrying currency."

"Anything else we need to watch out for?"

"There's a few tips I twigged, but nothing that's sending up big red flags," Malware answered with a shrug, turning her hands outward and clicking her fingers a few times. "Couple of arms deals, a diplomatic meeting, nothing that should cross over with what we're doing. But I'll be keeping an eye on everything, so if anything goes janky I'll let you know right away."

"Alright. We've got a room?"

"To one side of the real duo. The Dynamiks will check in on the other side and that's where the meeting and printing will go down. I phonied up the reservation to make it look like you're already checked into your room, so that bypasses any ID issues at checkin. From here it's up to you to take out or incapacitate or whatever the real deal and take their place, the meeting with Dynamik is at 23:30."

"Got it. Good work, Mal."

"It's excellent work, but I'll take the compliment."

* * *

"It  _ was _ excellent work.

"That was sort of the damning thing about it. She was good... she'd always been good, but like she'd said, she was better now. And I don't think it was just the prosthetics... doing her thing on Makarzia had clearly honed her planning and sense for things way beyond the scattershot Guild jobs she worked before.

"Forget five months total, if we'd had Malware working with us permanently, we probably could have had the money to return to Remnant by the end of the next month. Fuck it, take her with us too if she wanted.

"And Weiss was right... it was nice seeing my friend again.

"But those were all silly, slightly painful dreams. She was the enemy, and this was a job being done under very temporary truce. That was just the way it had to be.

"Right?"

* * *

_ Alright. We're heading up to the room now. We'll see distraction team one when you've hooked your fish. Backup team, remember, don't come in until ordered. _

_ Hup. _

_ Hup. _

_ Understood. _

Kai turned around in the elevator and hit the button, shifting his shoulders just a little under the unfamiliar weight of the jacket and overcoat. "... This must seem fairly normal to you, huh?" he asked with a glance aside at Weiss. "Other than the larcenous parts."

"Yes and no. I've been to a lot of places like this, but usually only passing through... enough time to get to a ballroom or whatever." Weiss glanced over, grinning a bit wanly. "We never really went anywhere for fun."

"... Y'know..." Kai looked ahead again, shifting the suitcase in his hand a bit. "Sometime... and I'm gonna make time for this... we're gonna check into a nice hotel just for fun. It might not be as nice as this place, but..."

Weiss reached out, rubbed his forearm briefly, and murmured, "I'd like that."

The room turned out to be amazing. It wasn't palatial, exactly, but compared to the apartment they'd been living in for a while now it was luxurious. All one room, but the bed was on an elevated level separated by a half wall, and the view of the upper-class area of the megasector the locals called Sparkle City wasn't half bad either. Weiss walked over to take a look out as Kai thumped the bag down on the bed and, being meticulous by nature, checked its contents over again.

"It reminds me of Atlas, some, just... more organic," Weiss allowed. "Less like someone planned it to within an inch of existence."

Kai grinned a little as he settled down on the edge of the bed. "Hey, um... just so you know, I'm gonna be doing my personality-crafting thing for this."

Weiss turned, blinking. "You mean that thing you told me about doing on Remnant, when you turned into Pyrrha? Didn't you say there was a risk the personality could... take over?"

"Not when it's like this. I've done it like this before," Kai answered with a shake of the head. "I didn't know how  _ thorough _ I could go before I became Pyrrha, but I've done it on this level before then. This won't be a whole, real person, more like a layer I'll put over myself, but I can't risk acting not-corp in front of the Dynamiks and breaking our cover."

"... I see. Well, thanks for the heads-up." Weiss nodded, then slowly made her way over to the bed as well... and sat down sideways on Kai's lap.

"Weiss. C'mon," he murmured, glancing aside. "You don't have to force yourself to-"

"I'm not," she said firmly, cool fingers gently urging Kai's head forward again. "I just haven't kissed you in almost two days and that's way too long."

Weiss leaned in, and this time it wasn't a quick peck on the cheek or chin. It was one of their kisses... deep, and wanting, and a little bit dirty. Kai couldn't help putting his arms around her and drawing her in close to it, feeling her tongue soft and slippery on his, her lips cool-hot, that slender, delicate-feeling body on his lap.

When she broke the kiss he quickly relaxed. She smiled at him, even if there was some nervousness in her eyes, and stroked her hands over his hair, before rising and murmuring, "Going to check my makeup" before heading into the bathroom.

* * *

"I guess that, among other things, that was her trying to tell me we'd work things out. That it wasn't all just instantly over, even if for some reason I couldn't change back.

"I'd felt her stiffen a little, some slight discomfort and fear, when I'd put my arms around her and pulled her close. But the kiss had never stopped being sincere... the kiss felt like it always had.

"I guess, whatever other stupid bullshit the whole incident put us through, I finally started to truly believe that the person Weiss Schnee was in love with was Kai Sterling... not her boobs, or her ass, or her hair. That she loved the no-account punk underneath it all, the nobody from nowhere.

"Which, obviously, meant I had to get back to being myself physically as soon as I could. Because fuck putting her through this any longer than was necessary."

* * *

_ Marks have just checked in and are heading to their room. If they keep to the habits their spending accounts have shown so far, right after that they'll be heading back down to the lobby and sticking as far apart as they can. Since this hotel has two bars, that means they'll be splitting up that much, which is useful. _

_ Any way we can tell which will go to which? It will be helpful if we can be in place before they come down, _ Blake sent.

_ One sec, analyzing. ... Okay, I just pinged your mark with a coupon from the Golden Grace, Blake. _

_ Got it, we're splitting up and getting in position. _

"Hey there."

Delilah blinked, turning her head, and fought not to let her instant interest show all over her face... luckily, a very practiced skill for her. The demihuman in front of her was wearing an almost scandalous dress for a hotel this nice, a shimmery silver thing that draped low in front and was almost completely open in back, obviously cut to drape below her lustrous black feline tail, and not coming even halfway down her thighs.

And it was very, very obvious she wasn't wearing anything under it.

"Good evening," Delilah answered pleasantly as the cat-eared woman slid gracefully onto the barstool beside hers. "Buy you a drink?"

"That would be lovely, thank you." The cat-eared woman's gorgeous golden eyes glittered prettily as she tilted her head a little, highlighting the little ribbon collar around her neck. "Order for me, though?"

'Oh my, forward.' Delilah let herself smile a bit as she ordered the other woman a martini. There had been no attempts yet to give a name, which was about as she liked it, but she might as well confirm the obvious. "Here on business?" she asked pleasantly.

"I was... but business got cancelled," the golden-eyed woman allowed slightly sheepishly, tail flitting back and forth in slight annoyance. "So I found myself with a few hours to kill, and then spotted someone who looked nice to pass them with."

"Really? Well you know, I have a few hours to pass in... pleasant conversation myself," Delilah murmured, putting a bit of twinkle in her eyes.

'God, I hate interplanetary trips with her,' Kaine thought with a mental sigh as he shuffled into the bar that was in the opposite direction of the one his working partner had gone in.

It wasn't that Delilah was an unpleasant travel companion or anything, they just had absolutely nothing in common. Kaine was well aware that he was largely there to carry things and to deal with clients who, for whatever reason, had an issue with dealing with women. He was, frankly, fine with it... he was not a particularly ambitious man, happy to simply do his job and collect his paycheck.

Then he blinked at the sight almost directly in his eyeline.

Alright, maybe he had other ambitions, he thought, squaring his shoulders a little. There was a girl who had to be sixteen or seventeen, sitting at one of the tables wearing a little black dress. Her skin was a soft brown color, dotted here and there with little beauty marks, her auburn hair loose and falling down her back. And she looked scared, and miserable.

Walking over, Kaine made sure to gentle his voice as he said, "Hey there... everything okay?"

She jumped slightly, fear in her eyes as she looked up at him, but seemed to relax a little once she actually saw him. "Oh, um. Yes, thank you."

"You sure? You look like you're about to jump out of your skin," he said with a light frown.

"Um, I'm... I'm okay," she assured him, in a very unassured voice as she looked down.

"Hey. My name's Kaine, Kaine Jacobs, and... if there's anything I can do to help...?"

She took a deep breath, then suddenly nodded, looking up at him pleadingly. "Um, l-listen, I sort of... I sort of promised someone I'd do... something... ... but now I don't want to. But I'm sort of... scared... to say I won't do it."

Kaine's heart quailed a little... but then he thought of those pretty blue eyes looking up at him with gratitude, and maybe more, and he squared his shoulders again.

"Well if you're scared, why don't I come with you to tell him you don't want to do it?"

"R-really? You'd do that for me?" she said, perking up, already starting to look grateful.

"Sure. I'm sure once he sees someone is willing to stand up for you, he'll back down."

"That would be... great," the girl said in a relieved tone, picking up her little handpurse and standing. 

They rode up in the elevator together, Kaine sneaking glances at her, and almost blushing like a schoolboy when she caught him doing so and gave him a big smile. 'Huh, same floor we're staying on,' he thought as she led him right past the room he was technically sharing with Delilah, though he doubted they'd actually use it for anything more than showering before getting back on a transport.

He did his best to square his shoulders and look intimidating as he strode into the room, bracing for every stereotype of a pimp or a dirty old man he'd ever had. He blinked at the sight of a slight, white-haired woman in a suit, who waved cheerfully at him right before someone wrapped a hand around his neck and yanked him into a choke hold.

Ilia quickly slid the tranq injector out of her handpurse and stepped in, jabbing the mark in the belly. He slumped almost immediately, and Kai loosened his arm around the other man's neck, instead shifting down to pick him up and carry him towards the bed.

"He give you any trouble?" Weiss asked as she stood and walked over.

"No, practically jumped at the opportunity. I feel a little bad about it," Ilia admitted, reaching up to pluck the clip-on hoop earrings off her ears, before adding wryly, "Feel worse if he hadn't been getting a hardon on the ride up."

"They've got a mind of their own," Kai grunted as he dumped the corp on the bed, which made Weiss blush a bit. He fished a biomonitor out of his pocket and set it on the man's forehead.  _ Mal, got him? _

_ Mhmm. He's under nice and deep, should be out for a few hours. If he looks like he's starting to stir, I'll give Blake and Ilia a heads up. _

The catgirl had turned out to be a bit of a cheap date, getting giggly and flushed off of a single martini... but then, Delilah had ordered her a fairly strong one. Grinning, the suited woman tugged the slightly wobbly demi-human up against her side, the golden-eyed girl giving a soft 'woooo!' and flopping against her with another peal of giggles. 

Delilah just hoped that Kaine hadn't already snagged the room after finding some fresh new hard luck story he'd help out of some minor jam and then be gone in the morning on. But no DND light on the door, so it seemed not. "Here we are," she cooed, guiding the other woman inside.

"Oooo niiiice," the catgirl cooed, suddenly getting far more excited, turning front-on to Delilah and pressing on her eagerly, ducking her head in close to the corp woman's neck and giving a kittenish mewl as she started licking at the skin.

"Ohhhh my well you're certainly turning out to be pleasant company, hmmm?" Delilah cooed, running her hands up and down that pretty bare back.

"Mew~?" the golden-eyed girl replied teasingly, nuzzling the open collar of Delilah's shirt further down, before giving a hard, wicked little nip at the meeting of her neck and shoulder.

"Oooo! You're a... bad... kitty?" Delilah murmured, suddenly feeling the world go all wobbly on her.

What?

Blake caught the suited woman by the arm before she could hit the floor.  _ My mark is down. Moving her and applying biomonitor now. _

_ How'd the tranq tooth work? _ Malware's mental voice asked as Blake hauled the unconscious woman up and carried her to the couch, dumping her before applying the device.  _ Biosigns good. _

_ It worked fine, but part of my tongue is numb, _ Blake replied, frowning and resisting the urge to tongue the device that had replaced one of her canine teeth.

_ Probably a tiny bit of spillage then, they didn't have any of the top-of-the-line models available. Don't worry, a bit of numb tongue is the most it'll do taken orally. _

Blake waited for Ilia, now wearing her working gear, to come in and made her way next door, catching the bundle of clothing tossed to her without breaking stride as she headed for the bathroom. "I still wish we'd been able to bring our weapons in."

"There's scanners at the doors, a personal weapon's not worth a blink on Makarzia, especially the high-grade ones Weiss and I are packing right now, but I walk in with a suitcase full of street weapons and someone's gonna ask questions," Kai noted dryly. "Hopefully you guys won't need anything, your job now is to sit on these two and make sure they stay conked until we all take the service elevator out."

Kai settled himself down on the couch, and turned his attention to his own next task... crafting Kaine Jacobs.

He had no interest in using the actual Kaine Jacobs as a model... far better if he didn't, really. Like he'd told Weiss, this wasn't meant to be a real person, just a layer. Not all that different than prepping a giggly, wide-eyed persona for a john. No, this was just an image of who Kaine Jacobs ought to be for this job.

Cool. Calm. Ambitious. Unflappable. Utterly self-assured. Ice in his veins and a corporate logo emblazoned on his heart. All business, all the time. If it wasn't in some way tied to getting the job done, don't bother with it.

"It's almost time," Weiss said after a few minutes, picking up the slim, internally padded briefcase they'd brought to carry out the items, just to look professional. "Are we ready?"

"We are," Kaine said evenly, rising to his feet and striding to the wall hangers specifically designed not to disrupt the knit of quality garments, drawing down his overcoat and smoothly shrugging in on it.

Weiss hesitated just a little, before walking over, turning as he lifted the coat and held it out for her to slip into. She turned back to him, searching the suddenly unfamiliar face. "... She's still in there, right?" she whispered.

Kaine regarded her solemnly for a moment. Then simply nodded. "Let's get it done."

Weiss smiled, just a little, at that. "Yes. Let's."

The door opened at their knock, the pair of pleasant-faced suited individuals inside smiling politely. Both were pretty, blonde, and somehow rather generic. "Good evening."

"Good evening." Kaine nodded curtly, once. "You're John and Jane?"

"Yes, sir. You're the individuals from Logistico?" At another nod, the man stepped back and gestured them ahead. "Please, come in. We've got everything set up already."

It looked like they'd moved the coffee table that was set in the room's conversation pit, replacing it with a tall device with a number of thin, almost cable-like robot arms tipped with what looked like needles, a bin at the bottom roughly the same size as the coffee table had been.

"I trust we can get this done with a minimum of fuss?" Weiss said primly as she strode ahead of Kaine into the room, the tall redheaded man making a show of looking around examining everything.

"Certainly, ma'am. We just need you to confirm your identities here," Jane said, turning on a thicker than usual data tablet and pivoting to present it to Weiss.

_ Stall them just a little, I need to make sure the tablet has pulled the altered files I uploaded into Dynamik's deebee. _

Weiss lifted a hand towards the tablet, then paused, pursing her lips. "Now before we begin anything, you're  _ sure _ this printer can provide the results we need? It's... well,  _ portable _ , after all."

"Not to worry, ma'am," the blonde man said, pleasantly as ever. "Dynamik's portable printers are, if anything, more detailed than the fixed location ones of other companies. And our fixed location ones are even more impressive. Why, Jane and I were both printed there!"

Weiss blinked at that, unable to keep her eyes from widening a little. "Wait, you can print... people?"

"Yes, ma'am, certainly!" Jane declared proudly. "While John and I are both technically classified as bioroids, we are 100% organic 3D printed humans! Company created and trademarked! ... Ma'am, the scan, please?"

_ You're good. _

Trying to smooth her slightly rumpled composure, Weiss nodded and lay her hand on the surface of the tablet. A moment later it blipped green, announcing " _ Delilah Storme" _ in a smooth, artificial tone. Kaine unhesitatingly took her place, calmly placing his own hands and waiting for the tone of " _ Kaine Jacobs" _ to remove his hand.

"Very good. You have the files for the printing? Very good," John repeated as Kaine held out a large datachip, the blonde man slotting it into his own heavy tablet and starting to tap at the interface. "It looks like this will take about half an hour. Please, get comfortable and have a seat," he added as the thin arms began whirring back and forth, the very faintest layout of a pair of items starting to show on the floor of the bin.

Kaine nodded, taking Weiss's jacket, handing both hers and his own to Jane as he settled down on the couch, settling his ankle on his knee and watching the printing items with a dispassionate eye as Weiss settled down next to him.

"May we get you anything while you wait?" Jane asked pleasantly. "There is a full bar in this room."

"Just a little bit of vodka, please," Weiss said smoothly.

"Bourbon, straight." 'Gotta look like it's all business as usual to us,' Kai thought in amusement from inside Kaine, secure that her thoughts wouldn't show on his face.

"Certainly!"

Kai was free to keep expecting something to go wrong, since she knew Kaine would continue looking completely at ease, if a bit on the grim side, as he sipped bourbon and watched the bade and datadrive take form. But all was quiet until the arms retracted.

"The items are done, would you care to take them, please?" Jane prompted cheerfully.

Weiss picked up each and made a token sign of looking them over, then nodded and turned to open the case and tuck them away.

_ Problem, _ Malware suddenly sent.

'And there it is.'  _ What's the issue? _ Kaine sent back evenly.

There was just the very briefest of pauses, as if the different mental voice and tone had rattled the Demon a bit, before she replied,  _ We've got incoming, a lot of incoming. I don't think they're here for you, but with this many incoming it could be a problem no matter what. _

Kaine held up a hand and put a finger to his ear as if listening to a more traditional comm, the other three blinking and looking at him.  _ Identification? _

_ Working on it. They're shielded pretty good, I'm having trouble even picking out numbers and... oh shit Kai it's Voidhail. _

_ How many? _

_ Five vans and a truck, at  _ **_least._ **

Kai let Kaine keep control for the moment, since he wasn't freaking the fuck out. He stood, saying both aloud and over the group send, "That's not a hit team, that's a clearance squad, they're here to kill everyone in the building."

"U-um, excuse me?" Jane said, actually seeming rather rattled.

"Who the hell is 'Voidhail'?" Weiss demanded as she rose to her feet... and saw both the blondes go pale.

_ Who the hell is Voidhail?! _ several voices asked over the group chat as well.

_ A private army, one of the most powerful and callous ones in this dimension. They wouldn't think anything of killing everyone in a hotel to leave no evidence of their involvement in something. Malware, those other meetings you flagged, analysis now. _

_ Working! ... Shit! The diplomatic meaning, it's with one of the heads of the Liberon government and a Voidhail representative! _

_ Liberon's a planet that among other things acts as a haven for escaped slaves, _ Kaine explained to the group before anyone could ask.  _ Voidhail occasionally invades on 'mass asset retrieval' hired jobs. Looks like the meeting was just an excuse, and Voidhail's going to eliminate anything even potentially a witness to give themselves plausible deniability for murdering a Liberon higher-up. Malware, they're based on Earth, that means- _

_ Netrunner, I know! I've gone full wireless and I'm building extra walls! _

_ Then find me the suite the meeting's in and route an elevator directly there. _ "Are either of you armed?" Kaine demanded of the Dynamik representatives as he yanked the card and datadrive out of the case and shoved them in his inside pockets instead.

"N-no! It's part of our policy!"

"Can that make weapons? If they don't have to be molecularly accurate?" Kaine asked, jerking his head towards the printer as he drew his high cal, Weiss slipping a more slender pistol out of her jacket.

"O-of course it can, but guns are complicated, they'd take awhile!"

Kaine immediately looked at Weiss. "Tell them what you need, get it made, I'm heading to the diplomat's suite with Blake."  _ Blake, elevator, now, Ilia join Weiss. _

Kaine strode out of the room and toward the elevator, Blake already prowling out of the room to join him, what looked like a freshly-sharpened letter opener in hand. "We get to the suite, we apprehend the Voidhail rep, we squeeze them for how to stop the clearance," the redhead explained simply.

_ Guys a lot of dudes in heavy armor and with big guns are getting out and heading into the hotel, _ Yang sent in a worried tone.

_ Hold your position, you interrupt them while they're setting up they'll just take you apart. _ A bit of Kai's frustration made it through to make Kaine scowl.  _ We can't do anything for the people in the lobby, but maybe we can save everyone in the rest of the building. Malware. _

_ Locking down all the elevators but yours and getting ready to crash the system, it'll take 'em time to reboot it under their control, more likely they'll stick to using the stairs. _

_ Getting pinged yet? _

_ No, but it's only a matter of time once I crash the system. Room 2020. _

Kaine snapped the high cal to the ready as the elevator doors opened just in case, but the hall was empty, and Blake stuck close to his back as he made his way through the hall. Rearing a foot back, he kicked in the reinforced door, feeling bones in his feet shatter and his shin crack with the impact, but a crackle of scarlet Aura was already healing them as he marched in.

A woman with slicked-back blonde hair and wearing a black-on-black suit was already on her feet and a hand diving into her jacket, but Kaine was on her faster, a hand grabbing her throat and slamming her onto her back on the coffee table, gun to her head, as a pretty man in simple white clothes gawked. "Did you know?"

"What?!" the woman snapped, teeth bared in a snarl as she glared up at him with red eyes a few shades darker than his own.

"The Voidhail clearance squad that's moving into the hotel and killing everyone in the lobby as we speak, did. You. Know?"

"... What?" she whispered, snarl dropping away and eyes widening.

"Oh my God," the man in white whispered, crossing himself quickly. 

Kaine nodded, yanking the Voidhail rep to her feet and stepping back, although still keeping his gun to her head. "You've been played by your own people. They used your sincere negotiations to get him here, and now they're eliminating any potential witnesses as well as him. Including you."

"... Fuck," she whispered, with the tone of someone who had zero doubt in their heart they'd just heard the truth.

Kaine looked aside at the Liberon representative. "Name?"

"Cidney," he said in a distant tone.

When Kaine directed his gaze to the Voidhail rep, she murmured, "Leo."

Kaine's eyes narrowed. "Chipped?" At the woman's nod, he sent,  _ Malware? _

_ Already on it. Voidhail fuckers use slave chips with even higher gain than the usual, so they can send new orders from three systems away if they need. Luckily that also makes them more susceptible to...  _ **_this_ ** _! _

Leo let out a short shriek, both Cidney and Blake jumping in shock as the woman rocked forward clutching the back of her neck. Then her hazel eyes blinked several times, coming up to look at Kaine in something like awe.

"Alright, Leo, your choice. Stay here and get slaughtered by your own people, especially once they realize you're free, or help us shut down this clearance. You know their tactics, what do we do?"

Leo just stared at him for a moment, rubbing the back of her neck... then nodded. "A clearance like this, they'll kill everyone they can on the way to the target. But once the target's confirmed dead, they'll set charges and implode the building... the only one authorized to give that order, though, is the site commander. Take him out and get the target out of immediate reach, their operation's a wash, they'll probably withdraw. An incomplete job is easier plausible deniability than being unable to finish a full coverup."

"Alright. Got a backup piece?" At Leo's nod, Kaine tossed his head to Blake. "Give it to her. You're on my nine. Cidney, stay close to the lady in white."

They swept out of the room, Blake now holding a snub-nosed revolver in one hand and the sharpened letter opener in the other, Kaine and Leo forming the front line, all of them keeping Cidney loosely in the midst of the group.

_ I had to hard crash the elevator system, you'll have to use the stairs. Probably no Voidhail this high yet, but they're gonna be zeroing in on your guy soon. _

_ Try to ID the site commander, and paint a target on him. _

_ On it. _

_ Riot 87 - With Full Force _

Kaine stepped out of the stairwell and did a check, drawing out with the others and hurrying back down the hall... just in time for another stairwell door to open and a man in shiny black armor complete with smooth, opaque scanner mask helmet step out. Blake unhesitatingly threw the letter opener, the sharpened steel piercing the thin armored cloth around the neck and dropping him.

Instantly more men in identical armor came pouring out of the stairwell like someone had poured out a jar of glistening black beetles. Kaine, Leo, and Blake opened fire before they did, firing for limbs and throats, chatters of automatic weapons fire answering them, flying just wild in most cases, though both Kai and Blake's Auras flickered with several winging hits.

Then something like a metal cable wrapped around one of them's neck and hauled him backward hard with a cracking sound. A sparkling noise preceded Weiss flipping into the air, landing elegantly and rising to stab a long, slender blade up under the jaw of one suited man before pirouetting and slicing the carotid of another. Though lacking the distinctive Dust cylinder, the rapier's blade and dimensions were otherwise an exact match for Myrtenaster, though the metal was a paler, almost white gleam.

Without hesitation as the last of the kill team went down, Kai strode forward and knelt to pick up one of their rifles, looking it over as Ilia gave a flick of the metal-sectioned whip she was wielding and coiled it lightly around her forearm.  _ Malware, need an ID hack for a Deathbringer 119A smart rifle. _

_ On it. ... Put your hand with the biotek chip I implanted over your psycomm, I think I can hack it to have a universal unlock code. _

"Can you use one?" Kaine asked with a glance at Leo as she picked up one of the rifles too.

"Assuming they didn't think to remove me from the employee database before they dispatched the clearance team." The blonde gripped the handle, glanced at the readout, and nodded. "I'm good."

"Cidney, take her pistol."

"But I-"

"Philosophical or moral compunctions later, survival of everyone in this group now," Kaine noted, nodding to the pair of wide-eyed, pale-faced blondes that had followed Ilia and Weiss out. 

"Yes... yes alright."

_ I've got a lead on the site commander. I think he's downstairs in the lobby, they're setting up some heavy shit but it's not ready yet, if you're gonna hit him it's probably now or nevAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNHHHHH! _

"MAL!" Kai snapped as the unholy scream of pain rang across the mental channel, Kaine shattering away in an instant, the cry echoed by several other voices on the group send.

_... Netrunner... tried to fry me... blew out one of my vertebral relays... but he won't enjoy what I had... set up for him... heh... heheh... _

_ Mal, where are you, are you safe? _

_ Safe... for now. Can still work. It's heavy down there, but... if you're gonna send in your backup crew, do it now. _

_... Alright. Yang, Ruby, Pyrrha, you heard her. Breach the lobby and take out that site commander. _

"About time this came in handy," Yang muttered as she jabbed detonators into a block of putty, then wound cables around it to bind the metal plate on one side close before tossing it to Ruby.

"Mark the target," Pyrrha said calmly, raising up a little from behind the speeder they were all crouching behind.

Yang peeked up as well, identifying the structural point she wanted, then shining a laser pointer on it. "Hup. Go."

Ruby tossed the block of explosive forward, the metal plate glowing faintly black before the package shot in a straight line, splutting lightly against the red point. Near-instantly Yang hit the remote detonator, and the wall bloomed into a flash of fire and smoke as all three vaulted over the speeder and raced across the street and through.

Ruby's rifle chattered as several Voidhail soldiers whirled to face them, several hitting the floor and jerking in a way that read more 'hurt' than dead, considering their heavy body armor. Body armor that didn't do one much good as Yang fired her armgun while slamming her golden fist up into his belly, heavy plating shattering enough to let significant force through, pulping internal organs. Pyrrha swiped her double-bladed sword across a throat as she bought Ruby some room, the silver-eyed woman skimming the room through her scope before readjusting and headshotting a sniper that had been zeroing in on them through the haze.

_ Where's the site commander?! _ Yang sent as she slammed her stun knuckles across a helmeted head, the soldier dropping to the ground twitching.

_ Trying to pin him down, _ Malware's still rather pained mental voice answered.  _ His auth's been used within the last thirty seconds so he's down there, he... oh shit, take cover! _ she added desperately as there was a mild explosive sound, the sides of a large box dropping, and something that looked not unlike a smaller Atlesian Paladin if it hadn't been designed to look so warm and cuddly made a distinct powerup noise and began rising to its digitigrade legs.

Yang shot the other two a look, then took off in a hard dash for the checkin counter, bullets whizzing past them, Ruby twisting into her Semblance and weaving back and forth to arc over the counter, Yang dropping into a slide and yanking herself around the side of it, Pyrrha just vaulting over. Pyrrha had barely hit the floor when a furious chatter of bullets began chewing into the counter and wall.

"Well, been nice knowing everybody," Yang muttered as she eyed the rate at which the bullets were making a ruin of the wall in front of them.

_ Malware, _ Pyrrha sent calmly.  _ Is the site commander inside that? _

_ Pretty sure, it's heavily cybershielded but his auth was used to start it up and it's rated for a single occupant. _

_ I see. And what sort of ammunition is it firing? _

_ Steel slugs, mag accelerated. _

_ Very well, send the weakest point on its front armor over the cockpit to my mask, please. _

"Pyrrha, are you fuckin' out of your-?!" Yang yelped as Pyrrha calmly rose and flipped back over the counter.

Holding a hand out in front of her, the masked woman strode forward calmly, the torrent of bullets spilling her way all bending out of her path, crashing into the floor or furniture around her. With a twitch of her fingers, her collapsed staff flew into her hand, extending as she ducked and spun below the main arc of the guns, a twist extending the knife blade she'd built into one end. Coming up from the twirl with the spear shifted to her cybernetic left hand, she threw with all the strength in the artificial limb.

The blade struck home directly in the spot that Malware had highlighted for her, the robot reeling and staggering, its gun-arms flung upwards and shooting into the ceiling. Pyrrha ran forward, launching herself horizontally and slamming both feet into the base of the spear, driving it another two feet forward and sending the robot toppling backwards, powering down as its pilot died and its authorization to operate was therefore terminated.

Yang stared over the counter where she'd been watching, Ruby's jaw actually dropping beside her. "Well fuck me, if it isn't the Invincible Girl."

_ Site commander is down, _ Pyrrha's even mental voice sent.  _ The troops in the lobby are in disarray. _

_ Ex out of there, then, now, _ Kai sent back, firing a chatter of bullets down the stairwell then ducking and moving forward, letting Leo cover him with more rifle fire as he moved down. "Site commander's down," he said aloud after they'd gained a little breathing room.

"We need to get Cidney out of their immediate reach, then, and they'll call it a botched job," the blonde in all black answered.

_ Mal, we need an ex strategy now. _

_ Already done. Niobe's sent her best driver for you in a speedervan. She's gonna meet you outside the garage. Exit on floor three, end of the hall. _

They shot their way through several more clumps of Voidhail soldiers, Weiss flinging some about with her Semblance, Ilia snapping the simplified version of Lightning Lash down and strangling a few of them from above. They burst into the third floor hallway at a run and spread out somewhat at exiting into the garage.

"There! Target spotted!" a Voidhail soldier snapped from nearby, swinging his rifle up, only for John's fist to slam into his chest... and send him rocketing backwards to smash into the hood of a speeder, metal crumpling under him. At the same time Jane spun to the soldier's counterpart on the other side, grabbing him by the neck and hurling him upwards to crash against the cement rafters and drop unmoving to the ground.

"... Damn, children," Kai murmured, blinking a few times.

"3D printed, aren't they?" Leo commented dryly, checking her rifle briefly. At Kai's stunned nod, the former Voidhail rep snorted. "They work to design specs, not genetic specs. Peak human condition."

"Dynamik is the head of its field in printing," Jane commented cheerfully as she fell in with the group again.

They fought their way through the garage, starting to be steadily more pressed as more and more soldiers were diverted from the lobby, but just as they arrived at the street exit, a sleek blue van screeched to a halt in front of them, the side door sliding open as well as the driver door swinging out, the driver stepping out and firing a double barrel directly into the chest of one of the nearest soldiers, toppling him over. 

Kai looked up from the combat boots, plain loose pants, and simple black top, unable to help grinning a bit goofily at the sight of shortened iridescent blue hair. "Lucy?!"

"Good evening, if you would please board the vehicle," the bioroid chirped with exaggerated cheer as she racked the slide of her shotgun and fired at another soldier.

"You heard the lady, in, in, in!" Kai barked, waving the others in ahead of him and then hauling himself in after them as Lucy turned and dived back into the driver's seat, already stomping the gas before her ass had hit the seat or the doors had finished closing.

"Is she any good?" Leo asked somewhat breathlessly as the van drifted around a corner and took off down a longer stretch of street.

"Oh, don't worry," Lucy answered for herself, a sweet smile curling her lips and a wicked glitter in her eyes. "I was born to drive."

_ OnenO - Makes Me Feel Better _

_ Rolling crew on your heels, _ Malware sent.

Kai moved between the row of seats to the back doors, quickly spotted the pair of low, almost ramp-shaped black superspeeders darting through the streets after them. "Lucy, you see 'em?"

"Mhmmm. Hang on." Lucy sent the van into a drift before she ever started turning the corner, stomping the gas when it was still at an angle and jumping the curve, smashing through a handful of variablesheet machines and sending one or two people that had been within ten feet scrambling for cover. "I can keep us out of their reach a good long time but I can't actually outrun them in this thing."

"Get them to the Corridor and maybe I can ramp them off the sides?" Weiss suggested, then winced. "No, that would show them we were headed back to Tailtown."

_ Mal, can the rifles overload?  _ Kai sent.

_ Yes. Access the screen, _ the datathief Demon sent back as Lucy juked one way and drifted the other, briefly faking out their pursuers and gaining a bit more of a lead down a stretch of road.  _ Ammo screen, inventory, cancel, inventory, cancel, cancel, inventory, exit, quick shutdown, instant startup, pull the trigger when you're ready. _

"Blake," Kai called, tossing the rifle to the feline Faunus. "Take one out."

"On it." Blake threw open a side panel of the van, gripping the edge and flipping herself up into a crouch on the roof of it, ass lifting a bit as her tail juked to the side and she steadied. 'Guess it has its uses,' she thought with a smirk, before launching herself forward in a motion not unlike a pounce.

She teleported away from a shadow clone to send herself into a twirl and bank right towards one of the pursuers' windshields, teleporting again just before impact to launch herself into a flip and brace her feet against the barely-there back fin as the car twisted and jerked at having expected to hit a body at speed. The wallgrippers' tractioned soles gave her the purchase she needed to hold on for long enough to jam the rifle against the meeting of roof and fan, wedging in its barrel before pulling the trigger and backflipping away.

The explosion rocked the car hard, taking out a significant chunk of its upper side and shredding the tire, the vehicle banking into a 180 and managing to come to a stop slammed against a parked car, its twin shooting on past it.

_ Backup team retrieve Blake at 178th and Parker _ , Kai sent. "Unfortunately that was our only teleporting ninja, guys, I'm all out of ideas for the other one," he grumbled.

"We need a powerful enough antenna," Leo suddenly spoke up. "We get it near a powerful enough antenna for long enough, the netrunner I assume you're talking to can hack its remote authorization and shut it down."

_ Mal, you hear that? _

_ Yeah, she's right. _

"Parking spire five miles ahead," Ilia spoke up after a flicker of datalines across her lines.

"I know it, hang on again," Lucy said as she launched into yet another drift, this time banking back the other way and sliding sideways down a short intersection before taking off straight down the wrong way of a one way street, banking back and forth between a couple of oncoming people carriers.

Soon she was curving the can around and then forward into the entrance of the tall cylindrical building, shooting up the curve with its single line of cars parked along the inside at highly inadvisable speed and in a near-constant drift. Unfortunately the driver of the car behind them seemed to be almost as good and was keeping up.

"Shit, down!" Kai yelped, shoving the noncoms closer to the floor as the front of the wedge-shaped car snapped up and the passenger started firing a hail of bullets at them, several penetrating the van and flinging through.

Leo slid to the floor and hooked an arm through one of the bars bolting a seat to the ground, readying her rifle with the other. "Lucy, right?"

"Mhm."

"Can you get me a broadside?"

"A broa-... oh! Yes!"

"Then get ready. One of you hit the latch on the door when she does."

"Okay." Ilia ducked low, reaching a hand up cautiously, then called, "Lucy!"

The blue-haired woman yanked the wheel just a bit more, sending the van into a sideways skid as Ilia hit the panel door release. Leo was firing almost before it had fully opened, blasting a hail of full autofire into the Voidhail soldier in the passenger seat. He was pressed back into the chair and then shuddered and bucked as the bullets broke through his armor's resistance and tore into his chest.

"Consider that my resignation!" the rifle-wielding blonde shouted as Lucy hauled the van back forward and tore up the ramp at speed again.

_ I'm almost into the auth system, _ Mal sent.  _ Tell your driver to brake and pull into spot 1338. _

"Lucy! Spot 1338!"

The bioroid nodded firmly, eyes flicking to the side... then braking and weaving the car back, letting the black wedge overshoot them as she twisted and jammed the van into the space. The pursuer's car abruptly had its entire electric system shut down, sending it brakeless into a wall, the driver flung out of the still-open front and smashing against the cement.

Almost immediately, the car mover arm running down the center of the parking spire rose up, the gate of spot 1339 dropping in front to allow the arm to slide a delivery van into the empty space.

" _ Nice _ , Mal," Kai muttered both aloud and over the psycomm, waving everyone out of the current van. "Okay, switch, switch, let's go. Lucy, drive casual once we get out of here."

"Okay, let's split up here," Kai said, patting Lucy on the shoulder as they arrived near the Corridor in Officeville. "Drop us off here, Luce."

"Alright." The bioroid pulled over to the curb. "I hope you've been satisfied with your driving experience tonight," she quipped, a sardonic twinkle in her eyes.

"More than, great job," he chuckled, patting her on the shoulder before climbing out. "Jane, John, you good from here?"

"We will signal for the company to come and get us," John answered with a nod, hesitating only briefly before adding. "I believe we will also be able to see to Cidney's safe departure off of Makarzia."

"O-oh, really?" the government official asked, perking up a bit.

"Yes. In return, perhaps we could talk about establishing a Dynamik office on Liberon?"

"Um. Hm. We'd have to talk about... certain practices... but yes, I think I can at least get you a meeting with the council."

"Acceptable!" Jane chirped.

Kai snorted a little before turning. "How about you, Leo?"

"I... don't know," the blonde woman admitted, shaking her head. "It wasn't as if I enjoyed being Voidhail's slave, but... that life's all I really know. I was good at it and I actually enjoyed parts of it... I don't know what to do now. I definitely can't go anywhere Voidhail operates regularly."

Kai regarded her for a moment... then sighed and grinned a bit. "Comm channel A67811-J. Got it?"

"A67811-J, yes?" Leo repeated back, frowning.

"I know a little something about getting free but still wanting the familiar and known. Call that frequency, tell whoever answers that Kai Sterling vouches for you and you need to speak to Horace Allfather. I think you'll find a good fit with him."

"I... alright. Thank you."

"Thank you, Leo," the redhead replied, offering his hand. "Couldn't have made it out of there tonight without you.

Once the blonde had shaken it and left, Kai turned to Weiss and Ilia. "You guys hook back up with the others, I'm gonna boost a people carrier, I've still got one more thing to do before we can call it good."

"Go take care of her, okay?" Weiss urged gently, touching his arm.

"Yeah." Kai turned and scanned the streets, spotting a simple two-person people carrier and heading over.  _ Mal, where you holed up? _

Kai pushed open the door of the empty office building in Sparkle City, frowning at the sight of Malware slumped back in an office chair so heavily she looked like she'd tip over at any moment, her cable-tail completely still. "Mal?"

"Mmf. Yeah," she answered, turning her head to follow him as he walked over. "You really didn't have to come."

"You're part of my crew until this job is done, we shook on it. The hell I'm just going to leave you injured and laying somewhere." He walked over, looking her up and down. "Can you move at all?"

"... Not below the waist," she admitted after a moment. "Like I said, netrunner blew out one of my vertebral relays trying to fry my nervous system. Heh... but you should see the other guy. Damn, I'd kind of like to see the other guy," she added in a mutter, somewhat awkwardly putting her arms around the tall redhead's neck as he bent to lift her out of the chair.

Settling the Demon into a princess carry and trying not to think too much about how her head settled against his shoulder, Kai carried her out of the office. "Altalifa or somewhere else?"

"I'll have some Demons waiting to pick me up on this side of the Corridor, they'll get me fixed up."

"Mm." Kai shifted her just a little as they stepped into the elevator. "Expected you to be heavier, honestly."

"Carbon fiber, lowers the weight," the cyborg murmured a little sleepily, obviously feeling safe enough to start letting everything catch up to her. "I'm... just gonna nap until we get there, okay?"

"... Yeah. You do that, Mal."

* * *

"Weiss was right. I was glad to see my friend again.

"She'd held up her end of the deal too... she hadn't just supported us in doing the job, she'd acted as a full-fledged member of the crew and saved our bacon more times that night than I could keep track of easily.

"I legitimately wasn't sure what we'd do when the job chain was over and we had to go back to being enemies. Somehow I didn't think our touching tale of bonding was going to change the Demons as a whole. Or shit, maybe it would, who knew?

"Eventually I decided... maybe I'd earned a little of just taking things as they came again. The job chain still had links yet to go. This deal with the devil was grinding towards being as hurtful in its own way as the last one had.

"But I guess sometimes when you fall off a cliff, there's not much to do other than close your eyes and enjoy feeling like you're flying for awhile."

* * *

"So you're telling me," the older man in the all-black three piece suit said slowly. "That our clearance operation was completely dismantled by a group of essentially random Makarzian reprobates?"

"Admittedly, sir, some of them seemed to have... extranormal abilities that couldn't necessarily be attributed to good tech," the younger one said as they walked along the hallway of the ship. "And their netrunner... though they call them 'datathieves' here... was incredibly capable. Once he disabled our own netrunner, we didn't have any real defense against his intrusion."

"I see. And will I be asking our netrunner exactly why he was outdone by a backwater 'datathief'?"

The younger man paled. Just a little. "... Not in the flesh, sir," he murmured, tapping the control to open the door to the broadcast room.

The older man coolly took in the sight of the corpse slumped limp in the broadcast chair, still hooked in by various cables, a look of horror written on his dead face. A clump of ragged meat rested on the floor, apparently having fallen from his bloody hand... roughly matching up to the missing portion running from under his chin to the top of his chest.

"Talent indeed. I assume it happened when he tried to fry her neural net?"

"Yes, sir... looks like the enemy netrunner was ready and waiting for him. The moment he opened up enough bandwidth to hit the enemy with the attack, he had intense self-loathing and immediate suicidal necessity slammed right into his own core. He couldn't stop himself from... well. We usually don't allow weapons in the data rooms for exactly this reason, but in this case it didn't help."

"Mm. Load up his engram... I'll see if he can say anything to convince me to not delete him to save the marginal amount of space it takes up."

"Yes sir. Sir, should I begin preparing a kill squad? In retaliation?"

The older man quirked a bald brow as he turned towards his subordinate. "And will killing this group of Makarzian criminals also result in the death of our target? The completion of our mission?"

"I... no, sir, I suppose not."

"Then where is the profit in it? We do not kill people just because they annoyed us or showed us up, young man, we kill them for money. If there is no money in it, it is just a..." He turned his head, regarding the twisted corpse of the netrunner on the table very thoughtfully. "... waste of resources."


	13. Going Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the next step on their job chain, Kai's crew must enter true Hell on Makarzia... the Dark, the abandoned undercity where all the worst of what Makarzia collects from the multiverse dwells. With Malware out of action, Adam of the Freedroids loans them an unlikely teammate to assist.

April 26, 2993, 13:39 (Local Makarzia time)

"Mmf." Kai blearily raised his head from the pillow as his comm started chiming from the table. Doing his best to extricate himself without waking Weiss... or brushing certain bits of anatomy against her... he stepped over and picked it up, moving to the opposite end of the apartment and glancing at the screen before answering it. "Horace. What's up?"

" _ Oho... sounds like the rumor I heard was true. You will go to all sorts of lengths for a job, won't you,  _ **_Mister_ ** _ Sterling? _ " the booming voice on the other end said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, that's me, dedicated as fuck," Kai scoffed. "Hearing my new baritone the only reason you called?"

" _ As a matter of fact, no. Why, Kai, my very own Voidhail negotiator... how did you know I'd always wanted one for Dragontide? _ "

"Yeah well she wanted somewhere familiar to go, and I thought, 'Hm, evil in a suit'."

" _ Ha! She told me quite a bit of your exploits... fought your way out of a massive number of Voidhail soldiers, and all in a three-piece suit and overcoat. _ "

"I mean I didn't do it alone, but... yeah that's kind of how it went," Kai admitted with a shrug.

" _ Tell you what. Meet me at the Embargo. If you let me have a look at you in this illustrious suit that convinced some corps you were one of them, let's just say it will put me in a generous mood." _

"... Yeah, okay, sure, why not," Kai said after a brief hesitation, bobbing his head. "See you there soon."

Kai tried not to feel either vaguely offended or vaguely proud that the daytime bouncer barely gave him a glance as he approached the Embargo, acting like he actually belonged there. Kai wasn't surprised to see that Horace was in the same spot as before... the big man was, apparently, a bit of a creature of habit.

"My my, now that  _ is _ refined," the ganghead chortled, puffing out smoke with his laugh like some big humanoid dragon. "A proper red-on-red highbrow miscreant, if it's not too prideful to speak. I can't say I approve of the colors... rather bland, isn't it?... but you do look the proper refined rogue at the moment, Mister Sterling."

"Doubt I'll keep the style, in more ways than one, but it's nice to have options, I guess," Kai said dryly. "Doubt it'll fit too well once I get swapped back in a few days."

"Indeed, a shame. The newest member of my organization has already filled me in somewhat on what happened last night, but I'd enjoy hearing the entire tale from your own lips over drinks. Afterwards we can discuss a headhunting fee for delivering Leo to me."

Kai regarded him for a long moment... then gave a soft huff, lowering his head a little and grinning just a bit. "Yeah. Sure. Sounds good," he said, sliding into the booth. "Bourbon, straight. I'll let you suggest a cigar."

"Really now? Delightful."

* * *

"Horace, always with following his role model Satan's example. Make with the temptation... the drinks, the smokes, the money... to get what he wanted. A story? Yeah. Sure.

"He'd never be my father. My father was Qrow Branwen, blood could go fuck itself. Horace was just... a guy in my life that I had a tenuous positive working relationship with. So in a way, yet again, this was a deal with the devil.

"But. Unlike all my other deals with the devil... this one honestly didn't feel like it would cost me anything more than an afternoon.

"Horace was a wicked old man full of cruel ambition and vengeful spite. But hey... if he wanted to shell out for some above-top-shelf bourbon, a few ritzy cigars, and a stack of creds to pretend that he was having drinks with his son while said son told him of grand exploits of larceny and violence to swell his heart with pride...

"... Well. Maybe even wicked old men deserved to dream every once in awhile."

* * *

Kai looked at his comm as he leaned against the outside wall of the Down Boy, considering the oddness of the call he was about to make. But. Strange bedfellows had been made, so finally he tapped the contact and put the comm to his ear.

" _ Kai. Are you leaving? _ "

"No, not yet, Cyanide. I actually wanted to ask you... is Mal... -ware okay? I tried calling her and didn't get an answer."

" _ She's still conked from surgery, our medisurgeon had to replace a couple of her relays. She's going to be okay to go by tomorrow night though. _ "

"Alright. I just wanted to make sure. Thanks," he said, turning the comm to hit the disconnect button.

" _ Hey, wait. _ " At the call, he put it back to his ear. " _ Were you worried about the job, or about her? _ "

Kai sighed heavily, leaning his head back against the wall. "Oh my god, does it fucking matter?"

" _ Mm. Maybe not. I guess I was just curious. ... We're bound, you know. Me and you. _ "

"Yeah." Kai nodded slowly, opening his eyes again. "I know."

" _ I guess I can't help but be a little curious about the person I'm connected to. In some ways it feels like it doesn't matter... this will be resolved when we fight. One of us will die, the other will walk away on the path to become a Master. Right? _ "

"Kind of what it feels like," he murmured.

" _ Right. So the fight is all that matters. ... Still. Not knowing anything about each other feels a little... _ "

"Lonely?" Kai prompted after a second, since it was the only word that came to his mind.

" _... Yes. _ "

"... I was worried about her," Kai admitted after long moments. "She was my friend. And until this is done with she's part of my crew. I wanted to know she was okay."

" _ Mm. To care about a living calamity. I think that makes me feel a little better about this. _ "

Kai frowned. "Do you guys really see yourselves that way? How is she a calamity? She never did a damn calamitous thing in the time I knew her."

" _ She was a calamity by the time she met you. But that's a private thing for each of us. If you want to know, if she is your friend, you should ask her. Unless you think it would just make it harder when things are over and it goes back to the way it was. _ "

"... Cyanide..." Kai stared down at the sidewalk. "Why does it have to be that way?"

" _ Someone wished it. _ "

With that, the line cut.

"'Someone wished it'... whatever the fuck that means," Yang grumbled at the table that afternoon.

"Remember how we were talking about how Hatanashi had to be someone's beef?" Kai said, frowning as he swished a fry through some ketchup. "That if one of 'em had beef they all had beef?"

"So you're saying the Street Demons are such absolute terrors to the other gangs, and in the process everyone else, just because one of them wanted to go to war?" Pyrrha said with a frown, pausing in eating yet another chicken tender.

"Starting to think that's the case... that the whole thing is just one of 'em's deal. What was it Spontaneous Combustion said to you when you showed up with Mikon, Yang?"

"Something like... 'there's no hatred in it, just destruction'," the blonde murmured with a thoughtful frown.

"Yeah, but I'm betting there's hatred for at least one of 'em. Except we have no idea which one, and I doubt my little connections to them are willing to talk. Cyanide dropped that cryptic little one on me and just blipped off."

"Still. It's good that Malware's okay," Weiss said evenly, rubbing Kai's forearm again. "Do we need to wait for her for the next job?"

"No, we can do it tonight, though we'll be heading to the armory and loading up. Everyone goes in with rifles, scanner masks, and armor this time," Kai said, rolling his shoulders.

"What're we doing, picking a fight with another PMC?" Blake asked, tail flicking across Yang's belly and causing the blonde to make an amusing face.

"Worse. We'll be dipping our toe in the Dark."

* * *

"The Dark.

"If it sounds like Hell from the way I've been talking about it, well, that's not far off. See as you may have noticed, Makarzia tends to get a lot of dimensional activity. Deliberate and accidental. Lost stuff, discarded stuff... stuff that, if one were to look at it with a particularly cynical and maybe cruel eye, other dimensions had decided they didn't want anymore.

"The more tolerable stuff usually seemed to wind up popping in up top... y'know, angry lzrds and half-crazed cereal box girls. At least it seemed like it... I guess if more tolerable stuff popped up below, it probably didn't manage to make it up, most times.

"The really awful stuff... that tended to appear in the under levels of the city. The sub-sewer places. Old parts of buildings and streets that had fallen down with quakes, stuff that had just appeared there, stuff that maybe was built there deliberately at one time before it was the Dark. If the bad stuff didn't appear in the Dark, it generally either got chased there or wandered there on its own. The place seemed to have a sort of... gravity... that drew the worst things in the multiverse to it.

"There's a term that gets bandied about amongst mercs... 'Bad End'. A delightful little turn of understatement used to indicate a fate worse than death. Because with a Bad End you just wished you could die... or at least do it sooner.

"Heading into the Dark was just asking to get Bad Ended. Especially going down there with six very attractive females... don't ask me why, the odds just seemed way worse that way. I wasn't sure if me being a guy at the moment made them better or worse, or maybe about the same.

"But it was also, ironically, the safest choice we had for our next mission."

* * *

"We'll only be going about one level into the Dark, but that's definitely bad enough," Kai said as he led the way to the armory. "If it's alive down there, assume it's hostile and very, very mean. Do not hesitate on pulling the trigger, I'm serious. If it's survived down there it is not to be fucked around with and it probably wants to fuck around with you."

"Are you seriously saying 'shoot first ask questions later'?" Blake said with a frown.

"No I'm saying 'shoot first never mention it again'." Kai turned around to frown back at her, then at all of them. "Listen, I'm not kidding here, the actual Dark is not a place where homeless guys and exiled gangbangers hang out being normal dudes if slightly weird. Any layer of the Dark, even the top one, is death or worse. You can maybe, maybe, at extremely generous odds survive forty-eight hours down there relatively sane and whole, but after that, you're either dead, worse, or  _ changed _ ."

"... Changed how?" Weiss asked slowly.

"Lots and lots and lots of ways. None of them good. So listen, I'm serious... if it so much as looks at you and you feel uncomfortable, pull the trigger, keep it pulled until whatever it is goes away. That is a mission guideline for this, anyone who feels they can't do that, you're staying here tonight."

He waited for a few moments, then nodded. "Our goal is an old city data processing plant beneath the Kuzahood that got sucked down in a quake about a century ago. It's out of use but Adam's confirmed that it's still got juice, apparently the Freedroids can actually trace the city's power grid."

"And what do we need from it?"

"The Hatanashi megaspire finished construction not long after the quake I mentioned. Now, corps can pay to have their building permits deleted off the city records once their buildings are done, but  _ while _ they're being built and thus accessible from the outside, the lawenoff demand the database be kept up to date with the building's plans, in case perps try to access them."

"So Hatanashi's almost complete building blueprints are probably in that datacenter," Blake concluded with a nod.

"Bin-bon. Not only has it probably been scoured from every other datacenter out there, any other place we went for it we'd probably get some other megasector's gang putting a lifetime hit on our heads and that's issue we don't need to deal with. I'll take a brief dip into the Dark over longterm gang politics even if we are leaving in a few months."

"Alright, so we get in, get the data, get out," Ruby said, nodding firmly. "Will... that take a long time? Without Malware?"

"You and Ilia would be able to handle this one, but Adam's also providing us a datacased AI that's going to download as much of the terminal's data as it can as well as finding the blueprints we need. He's going to be buying the data off of us at a pretty good price, some of which will be going back to Niobe to pay her for the armor she bought us for this job."

"We really need armor?" Weiss said, though Kai noticed that her eyes glittered a little as she walked in and saw the suit of white carbon fiber plates over a black bodysuit.

"Going into the Dark isn't something you do in street clothes, no matter how badass. For that matter, everyone's going armed with rifles this time," Kai added, hefting one down off the rack. "Peacekeepers. Fairly basic combat rifle with shotgun attachment. Everyone but Ruby carries one, her rifle's a cousin anyway. They're a quality rifle made for rank-and-file soldiers, they've got good drift correction and decent FoF safety. Again, don't get fancy, you see a problem you point and pull the trigger until the problem goes away. This is the control to switch it from armor piercing rounds to heavy buckshot."

"I cannot help noticing," Pyrrha said as she took down the one-armed suit of armor. "That yours seems a bit small, Kai."

Kai sighed and nodded. "Yeah, Niobe ordered these before we knew the Dynamik job would require me to do a teegee stint. I'll probably only be able to fit the top."

"Well why don't we wait until you're back to normal then?" Weiss asked with something dangerously close to a pout.

"Because with this job, every day we delay brings us one day closer to Hatanashi twigging to what we're doing and coming down on us like a fucking hammer. My genes might not settle for a week, and we need this job done tonight so we can move on to the next one with Malware tomorrow." He held up a hand. "It'll be fine, Snowbird, I heal, remember?"

"I'd rather you didn't have to," Weiss murmured, before sighing and shrugging out of her coat. "But alright."

"Here, Diore tweaked the recoil compensators on this one to max for you," Kai noted as he set down a Peacekeeper that had had a small snowflake emblazoned on the stock graffiti style. "Yang, yours has had its full auto mode switched to the shotgun."

"Hup," the blonde said in a pleased tone as Kai tossed the weapon to her.

"Rainbow, yours is recoil compensated too. Blake and Pyrrha should be fine with off-the-rack. We'll stop by the range next door, everyone fire off a hundred rounds to get a feel for it. Then we're headed to the Kuzahood to see Sakai. Now let's get changed."

Through long habit, most of the group immediately started tugging off clothes... changing for jobs happened at least once a week, when they needed to pull off some bit of subterfuge or blending, and a locker room mentality had long since settled in, considering the all-female group. However-

Kai quickly turned towards the weapon rack, forcing his eyes directly at it. 'Behave, behave, behave dammit,' he thought downwards.

"Ahem. Ladies." It was Pyrrha who spoke up, drawing the others' gazes to her. "Perhaps it might be best if we went around that rifle rack there?"

Slowly eyes went from her to Kai staring very fixedly at the wall, and cheeks colored, vaguely apologetic murmurs accompanying them shuffling around an at least partially concealing barrier. Sighing and shaking his head, Kai shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it on the table, then peeled off the tight black top he'd picked up from Hell Blazer, rolling his shoulders a bit, feeling the stronger flex of muscles in his back and arms.

"Damn Weiss you are missing out."

"Yang goddammit!" Kai snapped, shooting her a glance over the top of the rack.

'Fucking suits,' Kai thought just a tad bitterly, now attired in his many-pocketed black pants and the top half of the armored suit, scanner helmet under his arm as his crew made their way down a set of stairs.

They did absolutely amazing things for everyone's asses.

Kai had always been acutely aware of being surrounded by attractive women who dressed in varying levels of provocativeness, just that his reactions in this body felt like constant smacks in the face rather than just pleasant background noise. At least once shit went down he was confident in his ability to focus on the job.

"A good evening to you all," Sakai said as they entered the large, basement-like room, bare cement and slightly damp walls. Well, empty save for numerous Holy Dragon blades, and a pair of biguglies aiming very large rifles at a closed door down another short flight of steps. "An interesting new look for you, Kai... and as always, it is good to see the Phoenix," he added with a bow of the head.

_ Y'know I'm kinda starting to get off on people calling me that, _ Yang noted with a grin.

"Yeah everyone comments on the new look," Kai replied wryly. "You got Adam's loaner for us, Sakai?"

"Indeed." The Holy Dragon leader lifted the strap of the datacase over his head and passed it to the redheaded man, who accepted it in both hands. It was obviously a custom job, purple chrome with a pair of round silver sensor suites set to either side of a small rectangular terminal screen, with a handful of physical controls underneath it.

" _ Greetings. _ " Kai raised an eyebrow at the heavily electronically filtered voice that emerged from the sensors' speakers. " _ Designation: Soundwave. _ "

"Hey, Soundwave. I'm Kai Sterling, head of the crew. Ilia Amitola, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Pyrrha Nikos."

" _ Understood. Organics registered in database as non-hostiles, _ " Soundwave answered, in what Kai couldn't help but think sounded like vague disappointment despite the rather monotone delivery.

"Are you sure you wish to do this?" Sakai said as the crew, in some instances, began bundling up their hair or otherwise sliding the scanner helmets on. "Perhaps with a bit of negotiating, another Neokuza clan with an outdated datacenter could be convinced."

"We need to keep this job rolling, Sakai," Kai answered, his own voice coming out electronically filtered now. "It's just a first level dip in the Dark, we'll manage. Because we're going to take all the necessary precautions." He turned back to the others. "Okay, guys, you'll notice that on this one our names are a bit bigger in your HUD than when we typically work with stuff like this. That's because we're going biomonitor on this one. You should have a little heartbeat indicator to the side of and brainwave line underneath the oscilloscope on everyone's names."

"And if either does anything funny, we call out, right?" Blake prompted.

"Right. Keep a general eye on everyone's but pay special attention to your partner's. Rainbow, Pyrrha's our partner on this one."

"Got it."

"Understood."

"Don't get out of sight of the group, in fact split up as little as possible. If you see something weird, do  _ not _ hesitate, brush it off, or keep it to yourself, speak up. If, for whatever reason, you get separated do  _ not _ stop talking, keep up constant chatter and contact until we can get everyone back together. And remember, shoot first, ask questions never down there." Waiting for the acknowledgements, Kai turned and strode over to the second set of stairs. "Open it up."

One of the biguglies lowered his gun as little as possible before stepping down, swinging the heavy metal bar out of the way and hauling up a door. Raising his rifle, he moved forward, the scanner helmet quickly adapting to the pitch black conditions and changing them to merely 'dim' in a heavily greenwashed version of a long set of steps down.

"Internal comms only, don't broadcast sound unless you need to, same with lights," Kai said after a few moments of walking down the silent stairs. Turning his head back and forth, he added, trying for a lighter tone, "So, Soundwave, how'd you get roped into this? You volunteer?"

" _ Approximately. _ "

"'Approximately'? What's that mean?" Kai asked, unable to help darting a glance down at his hip.

" _ Freedroids found Soundwave severely damaged. Downloaded as data... Spark status, unknown. Scanned memories. Found Soundwave's past... unacceptable. _ "

"Well that's a change," Kai muttered. "What happened with that endo must have shaken him pretty good. So what, this is you proving yourself, that you can play well with others?"

" _ Affirmative. If Soundwave completes mission with no organic casualties, Soundwave and Soundwave's collective will be granted new bodies, place with Freedroids. Soundwave currently has no other options. _ "

"Yeah, well, been there buddy, and whether you believe it or not, I feel you. Dunno what you've done that warranted Adam being leery of you, but it's still shit to feel like you've gotta prove yourself worthy of being free."

" _... Affirmative. _ "

"Okay, we're coming out into the sunken street," Kai said a moment later. "From there it's about two blocks to the datacenter. Keep it steady but slow, we 100% don't want anyone hitting the ground down here."

The cement walls enclosing the stairs ended, the stairs themselves looking in worse shape, battered and, in some places, visibly clawed. The area below looked like it might have been a massive cavern... might have been, because nothing like walls were visible. Instead there were just scattered ruins of buildings, in some cases crumbled down to the foundation, in others still standing but with broken, gaping dark windows. One leaned against another almost drunkenly, both looking like they might topple into each other at any moment.

"Well here's some pleasant memories," Yang muttered. At the slight turn of Kai's head, she added, "We went to a subterranean settlement once... the people who made it thought that building underground would keep them safe from the typical types of Grimm. Until they decided to expand and hit a massive cavern full of  _ subterranean _ Grimm."

"Pretty much everyone died," Ruby added in a whisper.

"Don't focus on stuff like that," Kai said, the words coming out a bit harsher than he'd meant. "... Minds on the job," he added in a bit gentler tone. "We start letting negative thoughts eat at us, it's just as dangerous down here as it would be in Grimm-infested area."

"Understood," Pyrrha said crisply, even the sound of her familiar voice clearly helping steady the others. After all, she was a reminder of how good things could happen on Makarzia, as well as the terrors that lurked below. "Huntress focus, everyone, even if we are doing larcenous shit."

"Hup," Yang agreed with a little chuckle.

They proceeded along the cracked, ruined street, surrounded by silence and implied death. There were no visible bodies, despite the vast numbers of people that must have died in the quake... which was comforting in a way, until you thought of what it implied. There was nothing but the soft breathing sounds being carried over the comms, the sight of more ruined buildings, the steady blinking of hearts beside names and little flickers of brainwave readings.

Until one heart icon started flashing and the brainwave went skittery, followed immediately by a chatter of automatic fire.

"What was it?!" Kai demanded as he whirled to face the direction the fire had gone, rifle up, adding a snap of, "Pyrrha, watch our backs!"

"I... I thought..." Yang stammered, finger twitching a bit on her rifle's trigger.

"Out with it.  _ Now, _ " Kai snapped, knowing there wasn't time for sensitivity at any point in the Dark.

"... I thought I saw Adam."

Blake's heartbeat monitor went skittery, a spike in her brainwave showing. Then Weiss's brainwaves and heartrate spiked as she fired a shorter, sharper burst of standard automatic rounds off to the opposite side.

"Who was it?" Kai said grimly, skimming his gaze over the cavern ahead of them.

"C-... Cinder."

Pyrrha's heartrate and brainwave spiked.

"Fucking hell, something's messing with our heads already. Alright guys  _ calm down _ ," Kai said evenly. "I guarantee you Adam could not have survived down here, no matter how badass he seems. Yang, what did he look like?"

"He... he looked like he did back at Beacon," Yang admitted with a huff.

"Cinder looked like she did at Haven, but... she was wearing her old dress," Weiss added.

"Okay so it's just dredging up fears from our minds. Maybe it's just fucking with us, but do not panic," Kai said evenly. "Soundwave. Can you interface with my helmet?"

" _ Hardline connection will be necessary. _ "

Without looking away from the street, Kai reached down and finagled out a cable from below the hardware buttons, bringing it up to find the port on his scanner helmet. "I need you to mark anything you actually get a hit as being physically present, nice and bright with an outline, alright?"

" _ Affirmative. Soundwave, complying. _ "

"Thanks man. Okay, everyone, let's keep our calm. Still be mindful of any threats, but if Soundwave doesn't outline it, it's probably not there."

They continued on for a little while, Kai occasionally seeing heartrate and brainwave spikes, and every so often one of the others letting off a brief chatter of fire at something that they soon admitted was another vision.

"They're all very edgy, aren't they? You're all such a broken little batch of child soldiers."

'Shut up, you're not there,' Kai thought back sourly, glancing at the image of Salem drifting along next to them. And following his own rules, he added, "Guys, I've got a persistent hallucination."

"Um... that's bad, isn't it?" Ruby murmured.

"Whatever this thing is putting off may just be twigging for me differently. I'll let you know if it starts being more than an annoyance."

"Oh my, were you trying to be hurtful? Now that's not very logical," Salem said placidly, pressing her hands together as she floated along at Kai's side. "If I were just a hallucination, why bother to try and hurt my feelings? Are you absolutely sure that's all I am?"

'You will notice a distinct lack of me shooting you in the face. You're not real and you can't hurt me.'

"I hurt you plenty without ever being in the room with you, we both know that." Salem reached out to drift an incorporeal hand over Kai's helmeted head, her voice turning soft and sorrowful as she added, "Mommy's sor-"

"Shut. The fuck. Up," Kai snarled aloud, making several of the others twitch.

"Mm. I take it my point is made?"

'I don't know if you're just a bunch of stirred-up memories, or if you're whatever is doing this using Salem as an avatar, but either way fuck off. We're here for some data, we're leaving after that, that's it. Fuck off and play with some of your buddies down here.'

"This does seem very much like my sort of place, doesn't it?" Salem commented breezily, glancing around the ruined, pitch black street placidly, a little smile playing about her lips. "It's what Remnant will look like when I'm done, most likely."

'Ruby's going to silver-eye blast you back to before you were ever an itch in your perverted father's ballsack, bitch.'

"It didn't work for her mother, why do you think it would work for the daughter?"

"Kai, your heartrate's janky," Ilia cautioned.

"I'm fine, the hallucination's just being a bitch." 'Fuck you, you're nothing but scattered memories.'

"And thoughts. Thoughts you've been keeping to yourself. Poor little Ruby, she's likely been in juuuust a bit of denial all these years, hasn't she? She must know by now that Summer went off to face me, but she'll never admit to herself that I slaughtered her lovely sweet mother until I tell her myself, will she? How do you think I did it? A blast of magic? A simple snap of the neck? Or did I take my ti-"

Suddenly Salem's words were drowned out by a scream of heavy metal music in Kai's ears, making him stagger a little in surprise. The music was positively archaic in style, but he saw the vision of Salem scowl, lips moving wordlessly, as if Kai's brain knew he shouldn't be able to hear anything over the music.

" _ Neural hazard to organic detected. Sufficient distraction deployed. _ "

"Soundwave?" Kai grinned. "Hey man, thanks. When you get a body I am totally taking you out for drinks or a music club or whatever the fuck you wind up wanting to do, my treat."

" _... Affirmative. _ "

"Is that the datacenter?" Ilia prompted a few minutes later, pointing ahead at a lower, still mostly intact building with some wan light spilling from its cracked windows and out of the doorway.

"Still mostly intact and still powered, yeah, that's it," Kai replied, briefly appreciating Soundwave's ability to manage feeding him near-deafening music and also weave in the others' comms. "Makarzian government, can build its own buildings to survive a quake and a drop like this but can't fix a goddamned bridge barrier. Okay, Ilia, Pyrrha, form up right and left of me, everyone else form a perimeter while we sweep."

Kai stood in front of the half-open door, the frame of it twisted and bent outward, preparing himself mentally, as well as ignoring the image of Salem now floating speechlessly beside him, glaring in a bored way. Then he yanked the door open the rest of the way and stepped in, rifle up, Ilia and Pyrrha ducking in behind him and peeling off to the sides. The interior was dusty but otherwise clean, looking outdated but largely untouched by the ravages outside, wan, slightly ugly light still washing down from the bulbs overhead.

"Clear," he said of the room a moment later, Ilia and Pyrrha echoing it a moment later. As the others backed in, he gestured. "Pyrrha, Yang, guard the front, Blake and Ruby, stairs there and there, Weiss and Ilia on me."

Walking forward to the first access panel he saw, Kai lifted the datacase up and rested it on the console. "This work?"

" _ Non-optimal but acceptable. Risk factor to organics increases with venturing further to optimal position. Recommendation: Use this terminal. Hardline connection required. _ "

"Jacking you in," Kai agreed, pulling out another data connection cable, spending a moment finding the appropriate match on the console before slotting it in. "How long you need, buddy?"

" _ Object to classification of 'buddy'. _ "

Kai grinned. "Sorry. How long you need, Soundwave?"

" _... Approximately ten of your minutes. _ "

"Got it. Everyone keep on your guard."

He tried not to notice as his hallucination of Salem smiled and mouthed 'You're all going to die.'

" _ Download complete. _ "

"Alright, let's get the hell out of here," Kai said as he unplugged the second cable. "Your mixing is hella sweet, by the way, Soundwave, you oughtta do that shit professionally."

" _ Acknowledged. _ "

"Alright, everyone, I've got a feeling whatever it is won't be satisfied with just fucking with our heads, especially since that lingering hallucination I've been having just disappeared," Kai noted as he did a quick check of his rifle before moving to the door. "We're gonna hafta risk double-timing it back, I think."

"Ready," Pyrrha murmured, raising her rifle a bit further.

"... Go."

Kai darted out of the door, moving at not quite a full run as he headed down the street, the others following in a clump behind him. They'd made it almost a full block before a blast of purple energy streaked out of the darkness of a crumbling building and struck Blake in the side, sending her tumbling to the ground.

"Get her up, get her up!" Kai snapped immediately, wheeling and opening fire on the building along with Ilia and Ruby. "Do  _ not _ stay down in the Dark!"

Yang yanked Blake to her feet up, the purple-clad woman hunched in a bit. "It hurts," Blake gritted out, obviously trying not to whimper. "I'm not injured but it  _ hurts _ a  _ lot! _ "

"It's a psychic attack, push past it, go, go!" Kai snapped back, waving them on. "SHIT!" he added as something came scrambling from another direction entirely, its surface pink, wrinkled, and wobbly as it launched itself at him.

Yang fired several shotgun blasts into the thing before it impacted against Kai, clawing and tearing at his armored chest with its forelimbs. Bursts of blood and pinkish flesh flew into the air, but it kept trying to rip into him until several of the others risked adding their own shotgun blasts.

Kai quickly shoved it off once it stopped moving, scrambling to his feet, trying to ignore the instinctive horror that rushed through him at what looked like a giant brain with four monstrous legs. His armor was scratched up but it hadn't gotten through... then he noticed a lack of pressure on his hip and noise in his helmet, and looked aside... and saw a purple rectangle sliding across the floor. "SHIT! Soundwave!"

"It's trying to draw us in!" Pyrrha called even as Kai started rushing forward.

"Well it's working, we do  _ not _ let it take Soundwave!" Kai snapped back as she started firing wildly into the building the case was sliding towards, the others opening up similarly a moment later. "Watch your backs!" he added before diving forward and grabbing the case, rolling and yanking it back, feeling only the briefest of tugs in opposition.

Several of the weapons chatters shifted to the booms of shotguns at the reminder, as well as a shrieking that wasn't quite in their ears. "There's more of those things!" Blake called.

"Fuck it, go, go, go!" Kai called, waving his rifle forward, wheeling to fire one more blast at the building he suspected their primary tormentor occupied mostly as a 'fuck you' before taking off after the others. "Soundwave, are you okay?"

" _ Fully intact. More hostiles approaching. Primary hostile identified. _ "

"It's really all fine, you know," Salem said gently, once more drifting calmly along beside Kai despite his full run down the ruined street. "You've been tempted by the peace being offered to you before. Just stop thinking, just stop feeling. Take orders, do as commanded. You've  _ known _ that peace before, crafted a self that could do it, but there's no one to take care of now, just-"

" _ Outlining primary hostile. _ "

"RUBY!" Kai snapped as a red outline appeared inside a nearby building, largely indistinct but with something writhing in a steady pattern around its misshapen head.

Ruby whirled, fixing the outline in her sights and instantly opening up with multiple shots of the high cal barrel of her rifle. The third shot tore through the stone and clipped the ducking outline in the shoulder, a mental shriek staggering all of them, Salem's image howling before disappearing.

"It's wounded but not dead, go goddammit  _ go _ !" Kai shouted, pelting forward again.

More bolts of purple energy flickered at them from the shadows, but they were ill-aimed, obviously more the product of rage than careful planning. Pyrrha took one to her heel and stumbled, but Ilia shoved her up and forced her to keep running, the group responding with a chatter of autofire in the direction the blast had come from.

"Yang, take him!" Kai called as they arrived back at the stairs up, passing Soundwave's datacase to the blonde before wheeling to cover the rest. "SAKAI! We're coming up! FUCK!" he added as something leaped from the shadows and tackled him, wrapping purplish tentacles around his neck and peeling off the helmet to let free a fall of red hair.

_ Peace, _ the thing purred in Salem's voice inside his head, drawing his face closer and closer to the origin of those tentacles, something dripping and dark yawning open beneath.  _ I offer nothing but peace. _

Then a rapier blade pierced through the side of its head, Kai's mind battered by its dying shriek before a white-armored boot slammed into its neck to send it tumbling.

"He doesn't want peace, he's married to  _ me _ ," Weiss snarled as she leaned down, hauling Kai to his feet with all the strength in that slight body.

Kai staggered and stumbled, trying to piece his mind back together a bit as Weiss guided him up the stairs, Ilia and Pyrrha covering them both as they moved up. Finally though he laughed a little. "I am, huh?"

"Well... yes, close enough!" Weiss huffed, giving him a little shove through the doors.

The metal door slammed closed as Pyrrha emerged, the redheaded woman slamming the heavy metal bar down across the door with a thought, clearly startling some of the Holy Dragons.

"Are any of you injured?" Sakai asked with a solemn frown as they all came back up into the basement area.

"I think we're all okay physically," Kai muttered, giving his head a hard shake. "Anyone injured?"

"I think I twisted my ankle, but I can't tell," Pyrrha said with a bit of a sigh, looking down. "But it's functional, I'll wait until Twitch can look at it."

"We're good, I think," Kai said when no one else spoke up. "Could use a replacement datacase strap."

"<Little Joko, is that weapon strap dear to you?>" At the bigugly's reluctant shake of the head, Sakai gestured, and the big man unclipped the strap from the oversized machete he was wielding and passed it to Kai.

"Thanks. <Thanks, Little Joko, I'll pay you back next time I'm in the Kuzahood,>" Kai added in Nipponzi as he accepted Soundwave back from Yang and slung him over a shoulder. "Let's get our bud-, ah, our temporary teammate back to Adam and crash, guys, it's been a long night already."

Kai swung astride his speedercycle a moment later, glancing down and adding, "Almost thought we lost you there for a minute."

" _ Possibility was estimated as low. Mission failure if Soundwave abducted. Organics highly motivated to retrieve Soundwave. _ "

"Ah, yeah, that's right, I guess the data would've been lost too," Kai muttered absently as he started up the bike and set off.

" _... Affirmative. _ "

"Here's your guy back, Adam," Kai said as he passed the datacase to the Freedroid leader. "He really went above and beyond for us."

"Indeed? I had understood this sentience to be dedicated, but not particularly fond of organic life," Adam commented as he accepted the purple datacase and regarded it with even thoughtfulness.

" _ Despite organic nature, Kai Sterling has been evaluated as a worthwhile lifeform, _ " Soundwave replied after a brief silence. " _ Conclusion: No one is perfect. Except Soundwave. _ "

Kai laughed and inclined his head. "Yeah, thanks, I guess. Anyway, Adam, I'd say he's earned a chance, just by what I saw. And like I said, Soundwave... you get your body, come look me up, we'll do whatever you decide is fun. If it's after this chain job is over, we'll make a night of it."

"...  _ Affirmative. _ "

* * *

"Soundwave's past was a long and death-filled one for sure, as I'd eventually learn. One of constant war and strife, with both sides barely able to remember what they were fighting for, even though as immortal machines they'd been there for the start of it. It had gone on so long that it was just what they did, who they were. Autobots and Decepticons, they fought each other, that was all they knew.

"Soundwave had been pretty dedicated to this guy 'Megatron' that led the Decepticons... Megatron appreciated Soundwave's meticulous, precise nature and rational approach to problems, and the ability to always come through. But that was just it... Megatron appreciated what Soundwave could do for him. As a gofer, a lackey, a tool. Whatever nobler goals he'd started out his fight with, Megatron had in some ways defaulted to the same mindset as the ones who'd made them... using Transformers like machines to get a job done.

"Down there in that cavern in the Dark was the first time Soundwave had someone care, regardless of utility. I didn't go after Soundwave's datacase to save the mission, I went after Soundwave's datacase because I wanted to protect my teammate. My new friend.

"And once Soundwave realized that, it was the beginning of a change, I guess. The realization that maybe organic life wasn't inferior by nature. But more importantly, that there was another way to live than just fitting into the role you'd been assigned at creation."

* * *

Kai sat on the couch, leaned back, eyes closed. Weiss sat next to him. The room was silent save for the heavy thump of the chemical-laced rain on the windows.

"... Do you really think she doesn't know?" Weiss said softly.

He didn't answer immediately. Finally, though, he said, "I think she knows. She just doesn't want to believe."

Weiss rubbed her hands over her thighs, staring down at her own lap. "What should we do?"

"I don't know. I guess I'd been pushing it off in my own mind too, but... I don't know, Weiss. Obviously part of me knows that's a bomb Salem's just waiting to drop on her when it will hurt the most... I hate to think of how that could go if it happened in the middle of a fight, but I'm not sure if anyone  _ but _ Salem saying it would really make her believe it. ... I don't know... we might just break her heart but not help the situation at all."

After a few seconds, Weiss pressed in against his side, nuzzling her head against his jaw. He made himself not tell her she didn't have to again, instead just tilting his head against her, drawing some comfort from her feel and her smell.

"We'll decide before we go back," Weiss said finally. "We shouldn't decide tonight, we're all a little... raw. That was terrifying down there."

"Yeah." Kai sighed, draping an arm gently around Weiss and rubbing her upper arm. Again he didn't protest too much as she drew his head down and kissed him... the same sweet, passionate, elegant, slightly dirty kiss as usual. But as it lingered, as her hand stroked along his jaw and down his neck, he drew away. "It's getting much," he whispered, turning his head away.

"I'm sorry," Weiss whispered, though her fingertips lingered in tracing his jaw. "We... can. If you want."

"Weiss," he sighed.

"I'm... not saying I wouldn't be uncomfortable," she admitted with a slow bob of the head. "But I'd be uncomfortable leaving you hurting too. Hurting when I could bring you some peace and some comfort even for a while. That's more than enough reason to."

"... I love you so fucking much," Kai whispered, closing his eyes as he took one of those sweet, soft, delicate wrists in his now larger hand, turned it and pressed his lips to the inside of it. "I think more than I ever have before. ... Way too much to ask that of you."

"Kai..."

"I'll be alright, Snowbird. Knowing you would is... a little wild, but more than enough peace and comfort for me." Kai smiled at her, stroking a hand over that perfect white hair. "I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered, leaning up to kiss him again.

Maybe he finally, completely believed that.


	14. Racing Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew's next job involves winning a race in the next megasector over, so that they can hopefully trade for an item vital to the big job at the finish line. Due to the race's rules, Kai is unable to drive, so Yang steps up to the plate... and finds herself unusually lacking in confidence. A straight-up fight she'd be sure of, but can she trust her skills when it comes to something outside of what's typical for a Huntress?

April 27, 2993, 18:06 (Local Makarzia time)

" _ Did you miss me? _ "

"Yup!" Ruby instantly answered with bright cheer.

The holographic projection of Malware's head blinked a little, as if not quite sure what to do with that. " _ Well. ... Alright then. We have one night to get ready for the next link in this job, which will be happening in the next megasector over tomorrow night. _ "

"I thought it was seriously bad news to enter another megasector, if you're a 'gangbanger'," Blake said with a frown.

" _ It is, normally, except this time it's by invitation. The next megasector is having their annual intersector street race event, and gangbangers from bordering megasectors are invited to attend if they're going to participate. There are, of course, restrictions. _ "

"Lay it out for us, Mal, what's the sitch and what's the endgame?" Kai prompted.

" _ As you know but your crew may not, Kai, the next step in this job chain is getting something to breach through the server room door that can normally only be unlocked by an on-site administrator or guard. We can open the outer door with the datacard but that one, our best option is to just physically get it out of the way. _ "

"And we can't just use explosives?" Yang prompted.

" _ No, too much risk of damaging the room and making it impossible for you to access the data you need and similarly make it impossible for me to inject the virus. _ "

"And we can breach this door by winning a street race?" Pyrrha asked curiously.

" _ Right. Because the stakes for this street race are high, everyone who races in it puts up their ride. So if you want a chance of winning, you have to bring your best one, don't you? While we don't need a fleet of street speeders for this, what we do need is something that belongs to this guy, Hidoyoshi Tanaka, a member of the Enlightened Lions, the Neokuza clan dominant in that megasector, _ " Malware continued, shrinking her own image down and putting up a still of an extremely slick-looking but slightly overtweaked Nipponzi-descent man with hazel eyes and a blonde streak in his black hair. 

"I've heard of Tanaka, he's a getaway driver that could stack up against Lucy, if you listen to the stories," Kai noted. "So he's probably not  _ that _ good, but hasn't he won this intersector race three years running?"

" _ Right, meaning he'll be confident and  _ **_undoubtedly_ ** _ driving his favorite for the race. If we win, we instead offer to trade it, and maybe a few of the other cars as necessary, for this. _ " Malware switched the still image to a rotating holo of a heavy police speedwagon.

"Goddamn, he managed to jack one of the actual pro lawenoff's vehicles and not get tracked down and ventilated?"

" _ Somehow. We don't need the lawenoff van itself, but we  _ **_do_ ** _ need the heavy-duty vehicle cutter it comes equipped with. That thing will make short work of the door. So we win, we hold Tanaka's baby hostage, we bargain with as many of the other speeders as we need, we get that thing, but  _ **_only_ ** _ if it's fully-equipped. Do not let him weasel us into just handing over the stripped shell of the van. _ "

"Not my first go-round negotiating with letter-of-the-deal assholes," Kai scoffed. "I'll smoke his ass on the road."

" _ That's the problem, you can't. _ "

Kai frowned. "What?"

" _ The race has another rule, one designed to keep it from being dominated by people that can just buy the ritziest, fastest speeders in the multiverse like dear old Horace. No bosses, only working street bangers. As the head of a job crew, you count as a boss. You can be part of the visiting team, you can help coordinate setup, but not drive. _ "

"Shit." Kai thought about that for all of two seconds before glancing over, "Yang, you're up."

"Hup," the blonde answered, eyes sparkling and a massive grin spreading across her face.

"What're we doing about a car?" Kai asked, looking back at the holo as Malware took dominance on it again.

" _ I can't do this for you, has to be done with crew funds. Now, once you have it, you're free to have it worked on by whoever the hell you want... I have a few Demons that do good work, if you'll get permission from Niobe for them to enter Tailtown. I'd suggest asking for help on that front from the other gangs too, we only have approx twenty-two hours to get this thing ready to blow by an expertly-crafted streetracer rig. _ "

"... Right. I'm gonna hafta get back to you on a few things on this, Mal," Kai said with a sigh. "I'll give you a call back in an hour, hour and a half, let you know the sitch."

" _ Got it, I'll be waiting. _ "

Kai leaned forward and tapped the disconnect button on the emitter, then sat back, rubbing his face with one hand. "... Okay. So," he said slowly. "I can probably get Horace to sell us one of the Vulfens, assuming he hasn't moved them all already. But that's gonna put a significant dent in our account... the sort of dent it might take us a few extra weeks or maybe another month and a half to bounce back from."

"That much?" Blake asked with a frown.

"They're high-end speeders and they're his, he's not going to let one go cheap out of the goodness of his heart. Figure three more weeks on Makarzia's worth of creds. Now, if we  _ win _ , he'll probably buy it back for roughly the same amount, maybe even buy a few more of the other speeders too if any catch his eye, putting us well back in the black, but..."

" _ If _ we win," Ilia murmured.

"Right." Kai nodded slowly. "If Yang, who let's face it is better on a cycle than she is in a car, can beat the best driver in a megasector, driving a car that's only been worked on for about twenty hours, then we probably break even or come out ahead. Worst case scenario on winning, Horace is an extra dick and makes me take a slight loss on the Vulfen, we add another week, but again if we move some of the other speeders we can make that up. We lose..."

"Then not only will we have lost the money and the 'Vulfen', we will have broken the job chain, and not get to do the large-paying job at the end," Pyrrha concluded evenly.

"Yup, exactly."

"... I'll need a navigator," Yang said after a moment. "Someone that can tune the car's output to what I need without me needing to think about it and can guide me. Is that allowed?"

"Yeah, cross-sector races like this pretty much always allow navigators, it's the only way to keep the race even marginally together. The sector's gangs will have paid off the lawenoff to keep the streets pretty much shut down, these intersector races are a huge revenue driver." Kai considered for long moments, then shook his head. "It'll have to be Malware."

"Kai, I can do this," Ilia said with a frown.

"If it was navigating this megasector I'd put you in the seat with Yang all day, Rainbow, but we won't have the Slicers positioned around the city this time and you heard her, she needs someone to do constant live tweaking to the car's settings. Malware's tailbone jack is the edge we need there, there's no getting around it." He pondered a moment more, then added, "I do have something I need you to do. Get on the network, work the comms hard, beg, barter, and steal however you have to so that we have the best street map of the megasector available."

Ilia regarded her for just a moment, as if seeing if she was being placated, but then relaxed a bit and nodded. "Right, I'll get on it."

"I guess I'll put on that fucking suit again and see if it really does put Horace in a good mood, and while I'm at it I'll remind him that this  _ is _ for the sake of the big intergang job so he shouldn't gouge me too hard. I guess the rest of you get on asking the other gangs if they can loan any people for tuning... Yang, talk to the Holy Dragons, Blake, Freedroids and Transcendants, Weiss see if you can get in touch with Pink-neechan."

"Not to sound out of touch, but really?" Weiss asked, a curious frown on her lips. "I thought you said they weren't a 'jobs' or 'fighting' sort of gang?"

"They aren't, but they do have a lot of working girls with a lot of different skills, as well as people that keep their operation going. Ruby, you go let Niobe know what's up, Pyrrha you help out any of these guys that need it. Let's get it done."

A bit later, Kai accessed his psycomm.  _ Ruby, what's the sitch over there? _

_ Niobe got us a garage we can use that's not too far from the club. She said that it only has pretty basic stuff though, so if we're gonna upgrade or do some custom tweaks the gangs need to bring their own stuff. I think Blake's having a little trouble convincing Adam of the necessity of the race. _

_ If she doesn't have any luck tell her to focus on Moore, I know someone in the Transcendants has gotta know something about mixing coolant and doing tube wiring, and I'll have a run at Adam myself. I'm on my way to pick up the Vulfen now. How's everyone else doing? _

_ Yang had super luck with the Dragons, they were really eager to join in, especially when they heard we were going up against Tanaka. She went over there in a van to pick them up and help them load stuff. I'm gonna go to the Corridor now, I'm supposed to escort Mal and her Demons to the garage. _

_ And Weiss? _

_ She and Pyrrha went to talk to Pink-neechan. _

Kai blinked.  _ What, face-to-face? _

_ Yup. Pink-neechan said she wanted to look her in the eye and have assurances her girls would be treated respectfully. _

_ Hunh. Innnteresting. Okay look I'm gonna pick the car up now and then I'll drop by the Freedroids before heading to the garage, tell Blake to just let Adam know to expect me. _

_ Gotcha! _

"You smell like rich girl."

"Former. Rich girl," Weiss said, lips pressed into a thin line as she folded her arms over her chest.

"'Former rich girl' is like 'former alcoholic', it doesn't happen," Pink-neechan answered.

Her office was, if any word properly conveyed its decoration, violently pink. It looked a bit more like a kitschy love nest despite also having a completely normal desk, chair, and computer station on it, even if all of them were various shades of retina-offending pink. Pink-neechan herself was currently reclined on what looked like the gel-padding equivalent of a beanbag chair, her all-pink clothing and hair making her look like she was trying to camouflage into her environment.

"So what, is this about the other gangmembers that are likely going to be working on the car, or is it about me personally?" Weiss asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes."

"... Fine. Well just to point out, I was as polite as possible to you, you were the one who started in on what people  _ smell _ like."

"Do you think I can't sense condescension, girl?"

"Oh, for!" Weiss stomped a foot and thrust her fists down at her sides. "I am  _ not _ condescending I'm  _ socially awkward _ , get it right!"

Pink-neechan blinked... then laughed. 

Just a little.

"Oh you were one of  _ those _ ."

"Yes. One of those," Weiss said rather bitterly, folding her arms again. "I didn't get to talk to a lot of other people. And yes, okay, I might have had preconceptions about who you are and what you do when I got here. But I do  _ not _ look down on you and I do  _ not _ disrespect you."

"Hm. Why the clothes, then?" Pink-neechan asked, eyes flicking up and down.

Weiss sighed heavily, slumping her shoulders. "... I saw some women dressed like this when I got here and thought they looked pretty. And then my girlfriend really liked it, so..."

"... Heh. Alright, alright, my apologies,  _ former _ rich girl. KC and Jameson... two fine wrench wenches, keep our vans and cars running smooth. Not much for fancy work, but they'll go over every inch of the finished product and tighten it up like a... well. You know. I'll call them up and have them ready to go with you in about twenty minutes."

"Thank you." Weiss nodded, turning and opening the door... and blinking. Outside Pyrrha was standing with her scanner mask under one arm and hood down, and her face a dark coppery red as at least four working girls vied for her attentions with various levels of blatancy, up to and including one stroking her upper arm and complimenting her on her muscle tone. "... Could you make that fifteen?"

Pink-neechan leaned over to peek out the door. "... Say, you know, if your friend could stay, maybe I could-"

"No."

"Adam, look, this isn't just important to the job, it's an important part of gangbanger life on Makarzia," Kai said, sitting across a desk from the Freedroid leader, who was once more sitting with his fingers steepled.

He'd switched up his body again, his head made of just very slightly translucent white material that moved and flexed with his speech, perhaps designed to give him more expressiveness, though it was a little pointless considering his usual demeanor. The fact that his neck was made up of visible supports and cabling was also offsetting to any increased humanity of his face.

Same great grey suit as usual.

"If you have not noticed, the Freedroids do not indulge in many of the activities considered 'gangbanger life'."

Kai sighed a little, nodding. "Yeah, look, I get not really smoking or drinking or any of that. But..." He trailed off mid-gesture with his hands, then held up a finger. "Okay, look, give me a minute, I need to figure out how best to put this."

"A commendable effort. Please take your time."

Kai rubbed his chin, then made a bit of a face. 'Shit, if I'm like this another day I might actually need to shave.' "Alright. So," Kai said slowly, sweeping his hands gradually apart across the surface of the desk. "The whole point of your organization is that you're artificial sentients that were either freed from servitude or were created free and now have a place to live that way, right?"

"Correct."

Kai nodded, searching a bit more for words before saying, "Part of the human, or rather, the free sentient condition, is constantly testing yourself. Testing yourself against others, or yourself, to see how far you can go. Like, take Hidoyoshi Tanaka for example... he's already proven himself the best racer in his sector over and over again. He could be satisfied to just sit back and let that accomplishment speak for itself, but he's racing again... probably against himself as much as anything."

"I see. Interesting. Please continue."

"It's kind of like... okay, you keep changing your body, right? Now, is that just at random, or are you looking for one you really like?" At Adam's curious headtilt, Kai grinned. "It's kind of like that. When we test ourselves against the previous us, and against others, we're sort of searching for a new us that we'll be even more satisfied with."

".. Hm."

"In addition they're huge social events... we coexist peacefully, oftentimes with people we never would otherwise, and that's becoming a bit of a new us in its own way too. These races are a big part of life, and life is what you live when you're free. So, let me make you this offer," Kai suggested, bringing his fingers together. "Help me out with some equipment and technicians on this race. After this chain job is done, I'll spend some time helping you guys learn what it takes to participate in one of these events as a gang. This megasector's intersector race is in two months, give that one a try... what do you have to lose other than some time and maybe a handful of creds you probably weren't using for anything else?"

"A... fair assessment." Adam nodded slowly. "Very well, I will agree to this deal. I will loan you a pair of skilled Freedroids. In return, we shall participate in the next race... I will see if it is a good experience for the Freedroids involved."

"Alright, thanks Adam, appreciate it."

"I mean... you're handsome as fuck, y'know?"

"Yang, please."

"The pretty is comforting, the scars are just the right amount of scary. You're like the perfect blend of strong girlfriend and tough boyfriend."

"Yang,  _ please _ ."

"Quit flirting with Pyrrha," Blake said in a tone more amused than annoyed.

"If I must." The garage door rolled up, Yang's eyes lighting up as the yellow Vulfen HPK rolled in and onto the lift. "Oh hell  _ yeah _ , it's mine!"

"I mean, figured you were gonna be drivin' it, so yeah," Kai said as he stepped out of the car. "Besides, he absolutely would have jacked up the price if I asked for the silver one. The Freedroid techs will be here in a minute. Everyone else assembled?"

"Well, yes," Weiss allowed as she walked over to him. "I think we'll get some really quality work out of them... assuming they don't kill each other."

Kai quirked a brow, then looked over at the group of techs from different groups who were glaring at the others, with the majority of the glares edged towards the demons, who were glaring back so hard they practically had a malevolent aura rising off of them. "You know that's usually just a melodramatic expression."

Drawing Weiss aside, he murmured, "Hon, I'm gonna change into some work togs here and probably be working all night, but I did have one bit of good news."

Ice blue eyes blinked. "Oh?"

"Yeah, did a quick blood test using the bodyshop's app on my comm today, my DNA's settled. If we have any time between getting the car done and heading to the next megasector, I'll stop by Altalifa and get myself swapped back."

"... Whew," Weiss huffed out, reaching up to pat his chest. "Not to dent your ego, dear, but  _ thank god _ ."

Kai laughed, curling his hands around hers. "Yeah, it's fine, totally understand, Snowbird."

"Among other things I'll have a chance in hell at being able to kiss you without hopping," Weiss said flatly. She stared at him for a moment, then added, "That was a prompt for you to lean down, idiot."

"Sorry." He laughed again, leaning in to give her a quicker kiss than he'd like. "You and Blake may as well head back to the club, I'm gonna keep Yang and Ruby for techhead stuff and Pyrrha as a convenient bit of shop equipment."

"How flattering," Pyrrha said wryly from off to the side.

"What can I say, you take less time than a winch, wench. Ow," Kai said with a grin as Pyrrha walked by just so she could whap him on the shoulder. "Anyway I'll give you a call when this goes on past dawn, babe, I think we're all gonna be operating on caff and stims for awhile."

"Okay but make sure Yang gets some sleep,  _ and _ the rest of the crew too," Weiss said, adjusting his lapels again, which Kai was starting to wonder whether it would be a habit that carried over to when he went back to wearing his street jacket all the time. "We all need to be able to make a show of socializing at the event, remember."

"Right, right."

Kai certainly felt like he needed a nap after navigating getting the disparate teams working together. The Freedroids and the pair of working girls got along alright, both were fairly conservative and wanted everything to operate within certain specs, and grudgingly made allowances that as a streetracer the Vulfen was going to have to push those well beyond graded tolerances. It was pretty much everyone else that was a problem. The Transcendants were obviously high and wanted to turn the new chemical coolant system into a work of glow-art, not understanding that the idea was that no one else would ever really get a look at it. The Syndicate kept wanting to put hidden weapons systems in, which the Demons were on board with but the Slicers kept calling stupid. The Demons and Slicers otherwise got along, except for really, really wanting to murder each other violently.

"Okay, no, y'know what, we're done," Kai finally declared, sweeping his arms apart. "We have four hours before we need to leave to get to the megasector, Yang needs to crash and so do the rest of us. Paint the fucking thing," he added, jabbing a finger at the Holy Dragons techboys. "You get some rest or defrag or whatever you do now," he concluded with a glance at Malware.

"Mmkaaay. You going back to flop with your pretty Snowbird?" Malware teased as she continued calibrating the car's currently removed center control panel.

"I'm gonna head over to Altalifa first, get this teegee flipped back," he muttered as he shrugged out of the coveralls.

"Mm." Malware murmured something else that might have been 'shame' without looking up from her work.

Kai gave her a long look. Then just shook his head and headed out to his cycle.

"Oh thank  _ god _ ," Weiss gushed, practically leaping forward and pressing her face against Kai's chest.

"Not the first time anyone's said that at the sight of my boobs, but maybe the most enthusiastic," Kai said with a grin, looking down at her girlfriend and stroking that pretty white hair. "Hey babe."

"Mmm, hi." Weiss replied with a squeeze around the redhead's middle. "I know it sounds shallow, but I missed you."

"I missed me too, Snowbird." Kai drew Weiss up into a nice, long kiss, then broke it with a sigh. "And as much as I'd  _ really _ love to celebrate my return, I've gotta ject a clearout and then crash for at least a couple hours, or I'm not gonna be thinking straight at the meet."

"I understand," Weiss agreed with a hefty sigh. "I set a nice loud alarm and the autopot for then. Should we eat in the club or something here?" 

"We'll eat at the meet, it's basically a big festival."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Squeak?"

Kai snorted. "Probably not, it's a  _ little _ more upscale than that since it's a big gangbanger to-do."

"Alright. I figured you'd probably be coming in all caffed and stimmed up so I made sure there were some clearouts in the cabinet," Weiss said with a quick kiss on the lips. "And there's a light conk puffer in there, may as well bring it out with you."

"God I love you," Kai murmured, leaning her head against Weiss's and rubbing a bit. 'And I love how you've taken to this place. Love how you take care of me in it. Love how you live this life. Shit.'

"I feel almost legit driving around in this thing," Yang said with a grin as she glanced back at the trailer of the truck they were in.

"Intersector street races are about the closest to legit that street bangers get," Kai chuckled from where she was lolled in the seat, waiting through the last of the daytimer traffic. "Technically illegal but fuck, even the pro lawenoff are in on 'em, brings a ton of money into the sector. Even daytimers put on something vaguely like night creature togs and come out to this shit in fair numbers."

"I assume that means behave ourselves."

"Yup."  _ Goes for the rest of you, _ Kai added to her other crew members.  _ These races are truce ground so no fighting. Only if someone punches you or tries to jab you or bang you first do you beat them into the pavement, got it? And make sure you've got reliable third-party witnesses even then. _

_ Whee fun. _

_ Heh, it will be, all the big bangers will be giving the little bangers this same lecture, we shouldn't have any problems. Enjoy the sights, munch cart food, don't get  _ **_too_ ** _ drunk or altered, be mildly respectful of the locals, that's about it. _ "I guess I don't need to tell you to be careful what you imbibe?" Kai added aloud.

"I ate a bag meal already, wanted to give it time to settle."

"Good thought."

"... Kai, you really think I can pull this off?" Yang asked after a moment, glancing over.

"Yang, I know cars aren't your specialty, but you are legit our best fourwheel driver after me," Kai assured her with a glance over. "It ain't like you to get nervous, what's up?"

"Just... there's usually not so much riding on me doing something that's not a fight, yanno?" Yang propped her chin in her hand as she looked out the side window. "If it was a hand-to-hand tournament I'd bust in there with big dick energy coming out of every pore, this feels... different."

Kai started laughing.

"Hey, c'mon! Having a moment!"

"Sorry! Just... big dick energy out of every pore, that's so fuckin' you!" Kai laughed a little more, until Yang started grinning. "I believe in you, cuz. You're gonna pull it off."

"Yeah. Yeah, I will." Yang chuckled some, settling back in the seat. "You ever been here before? Like, this megasector, not just the race?"

"Dipped my toe in a few times... I wasn't an actual banger before, just a contractor, so I could wander into the other megasectors on work sometimes and it wasn't that big of a deal. As for the race, nah, most I've done is kind of passed around the edges. I know a fair bit about 'em since, y'know, you work the gangbanger life on Makarzia you need to know stuff like that, but actually getting to attend..."

"Too much like fun to be allowed to do it?" Yang prompted quietly.

"... Yeah, pretty much," Kai answered with a shrug and a glance out the window.

Yang was quiet for a little while before saying, "You ever think about... y'know... going and seeing him?"

"What?" The redhead glanced over, briefly uncomprehending, then snorted loudly. "What, the old man? Why the fuck would I do that?"

"I dunno, just to get shit off your chest if nothing else." Yang shrugged as well, sitting back in her seat. "Talk to him, yell at him, whatever."

"Look, I'm just satisfied with him being out of my fuckin' life, okay?" Kai insisted, thumping two fingertips against the steering wheel. "Got nothing to say to him."

"'Kay. Sorry. Just, y'know, spent ten years looking for Raven to hear what she had to say, guess I can't help projecting or something."

"Well. It ain't like that here. He's just some guy who bought me and abused me and exploited me. That part of my life is over. Don't got a thing to say."

"Right, right, sorry I said."

"Nah cuz it's fine, I ain't laying into you, just... sayin'."

* * *

"I wanted it to be true. That I had nothing to say, nothing to ask, nothing to settle. That I could just drop an ax between two points in my life and chop them clean apart.

"Unlike Yang I wanted to run from those questions rather than towards them.

" _ Why _ had he treated me like such shit?  _ Why _ had he been so dedicated to running me down? Did he  _ ever _ care?

"I was afraid of the answers. Either the truth or whatever bullshit he'd spout. The me who was a Huntress, the me who was a crew boss, those were things I'd made independent of him. I didn't want bits and pieces... getting mixed in and muddying me up."

* * *

"Anyway, did a pass-through enough to know a few of the gangs... I think there's the Santaskele, the Wolves, and you already heard about the Enlightened Lions."

"Are they a lot different than the Holy Dragons?"

Kai snorted. "I'm sure they'd go on about how different and unique they are all damn day but from what little I saw nah, they're pretty much the same. Different tats as you might imagine, but same style, same manner, same driving purpose. They're Neokuza, it's really all about the same."

"What about the other two?"

"Santaskele are just basically your typical bangers, they're big on flash and fun and chest-pounding. From what I've seen and heard, about the only two things to avoid unless you absolutely want a fight are insulting a Santaskele's machismo or female family members. And that goes for the female ones too," Kai added with a soft snort. "They're very proud of the size of their balls, metaphorically speaking."

"Big dick energy, amirite?"

"Yoorite. The Wolves are a wargang... they're always looking for a fight, and willing to fight for someone else if they're offered creds and respect. I know at one point there was some serious talk to hiring them to come in and join the fight against the Demons, before things settled back into more typical gangwar levels."

"They're that good?"

"They're drilled and disciplined more like a real army with a layer of banger laid overtop them, yeah, plus they're owed a lot of debts of both creds and dues from other gangs from half this side of the planet. Hearing that the Wolves have 'called the banners' is a terrifying phrase for a reason."

"You gonna tell everyone else this stuff too?"

"Yeah, I'll give a quick little psycomm briefing when we get close in. But there's probably other gangs in the megasector I don't know, plus representatives from another three besides, so mostly your best defense is to-"

"Mind my manners, got it."

"Especially since you're our driver. In fact, hate to ask it of you, but maybe don't stray out of sight of the car. The Slicers that came with us are gonna be guarding it but still."

"Yeah, yeah, fine." Yang scoffed. "But I get to go play at the one for our sector, right?"

"Yup, I'll be driving that one," Kai chuckled. "Our megasector's intersector race is a little bit more straightforward... no off-the-shelf superspeeders, no gangheads driving, entry fee and prize money. That's about it." She glanced aside as the truck's center panel lit up with an incoming call, leaning forward to tap it. "S'up, Ma?"

" _ Hey my child, how far out are you? _ "

"Maybe another fifteen minutes as the traffic clears out, though there's gonna be a little near the race too."

" _ Wanted to let you know, Wolves got in touch with us. They're running security and coord on this race, so you'll probably have one come out and escort you. _ "

"Cool, I'll tell the others to expect 'em. Anything else we need to look out for here?"

" _ From the little bit of digging we were able to do on such short notice, looks like your primary competition other than Tanaka is from the Wolves' young prince, Jeone, and another megasector's gang, the Fullbodies. Full conversion cyborgs. _ "

"Shit, that's some stiff competition, gonna hafta watch that one for sure. Thanks, Ma."

" _ Of course, my child. How 'bout you, Yang, you feelin' fiery? _ "

Yang grinned, purple eyes twinkling, "You know it. 'Ma'," she added, a bit teasingly.

The answering twinkle in Niobe's golden eyes was answer enough to what she thought of that. " _ Good. Do me proud, like usual, girls. I'm gonna sit here in my club and relax knowin' the honor of the Slicers is in good hands. _ "

"Hup," both women in the truck cab answered in near-unison before the call ended.

Kai wasn't surprised when she wound up joining a procession of a few other trucks and their obvious escorts of bangermobiles and colorfully-garbed people on speedercycles. Nor was she surprised when a handful of cycle-mounted people in blue and silver drove the wrong way up the side, starting to split off and fall in alongside the trucks. Weiss drifted back from her usual spot on the driver's side that she typically took when Kai was driving to let the blue-jacketed man with a snarling wolf emblazoned on his helmet take her place.

Rolling down the window, Kai poked her head out a bit. "Hey man, how's it going so far?"

"Little hectic, lots of last-minute entrants," he replied wryly through his helmet's speakers.

She chuckled, giving him a slightly sheepish grin. "Sorry man. 'Spec tho."

"Happens every year, 'spec."

"We lookin' at a long wait to get in?"

"No, we've got spots lined up for everyone now, just gotta go slow through the crowds once you get up there."

"Anything I and my crew need to watch out for to keep the peace, man?"

He was silent for a moment before saying, "The Darkdreamers, you know them?"

"Nah man, s'up?"

"They're from a megasector over, we have problems with them drifting over the border sometimes. If someone dressed in nemo style asks if you want to take a trip, they're not offering chems... they try to lure you down into the Dark for 'adventures'."

"Shit man, for real?" Kai scowled. "Just hadda go down into the first-level Dark on a job the other day, I went fully armored and heavy carrying with an entire team and wouldn't have gotten out of it without AI backup, you telling me these crazy motherfuckers try to get people to just randomly wander down with them for kicks?"

"Pretty much. Tell your crew to watch out."

"We're not big trippers anyway but I'll let 'em know, thanks man."

"Shit, there are people that  _ want _ to go down there?" Yang said with a frown and just a bit of a shudder.

"Takes all kinds. Even among mercs, there're people that kind of get off on the idea that they might eventually get Bad Ended," Kai answered with a shrug. "For them it's part of the adrenaline rush."

"Shit."

_ Anyway, for those that didn't hear the nice man, there's some weirdos here who apparently LIKE to go to the Dark, if someone showing off even more black clothes and makeup than usual offers you a trip, politely decline. _

_ Charming, _ Pyrrha sent back dryly.They did have to take it slow through a crowd of people moving about the grounds where the 'fairground' aspect of the race was partially taking place, this spot in particular a massive one-level parking lot that had been largely cleared out. The idea here being to show off the cars and their drivers to the crowd for a while before the race began at midnight. A pair of Wolves wearing what looked like blue tabards with an almost scaly-seeming wolf logo over their black street leathers, snarling silver wolf masks over their lower faces, waved Kai into one of the spaces set out for trucks like theirs.

"Okay, let's unload," the redhead declared as she opened the door and climbed down, Yang following along with her. She slapped three tens into the hand of one of the tabarded Wolves while giving a greeting shoulder-bump, more as a sign of respect than any serious attempt to tip, then moved to where the Slicers that had accompanied them were already off their bikes and rolling up the back door of the trailer and extending its ramp down. Kai hit a button on the keyfob, and the Vulfen drove itself down out of the trailer, sidemonitors extending as it slid past the opening.

'Damn, Sakai, I'm gonna hafta buy your boys some pleasurable company in thanks,' Kai thought with a grin as she saw the hood art. It wasn't quite an  _ exact _ recreation of Yang's back tattoo, but the blazing phoenix was generally similar and rendered in the same metallic gold, its flames spreading across the upper hood and sides as well.

She expected no one would fuck with it, considering that to do so would have been a slight against the Wolves and there weren't many people in the quad-sector area who'd do that over something like this race, especially since it would have been bringing heat from every other gang participating too. Still, Buzz and Loren would both be standing guard over it, the big lapine-eared woman keeping an eye on Malware as she swung off her sleek little green chrome speedercycle and sauntered over, cabletail lashing lightly.

"I guess me and Mal should discuss the route and stuff," Yang said as the crew gathered. "The rest of you go have fun," she added with a grin.

"Are you sure?" Blake frowned a little. "I don't mind staying with you."

"Nah, enjoy the festival, Blakey, we'll have plenty of time together at the next one."

"Let's go mingle, guys," Kai urged, tucking her hands in her jacket pockets. "One time of year we'll see some of these peeps, helpful to size 'em up and make good impressions if we can."

Blake leaned in to give Yang a quick kiss, then the group moved away. They looked at some of the other cars as they headed for the main festival grounds, what of them they could see through the people clustered around them.

"There, right there," Kai pointed out, gesturing to a low-set 'classic' bodied speeder, more round edges and slopes than most, in a dark blue with an elaborate silver overlapping scrollwork design around a snarling wolf's head that had a man almost like a lion. Sitting on the upper hood, legs dangling over the windshield, but managing to make sprawling on a car look like he was settled on a throne, was a man in blue and black streetarmor, blue hardened plastic pads over black racersuit, a slightly more elaborate wolf-snout mask covering his lower head, long thick dark curls spilling around his shoulders. "That's the Wolves' prince, Jeone, one of our lead competitors."

"Who's his navigator?" Ruby asked curiously, standing on tiptoe trying to see above the crowd.

"Probably one of his sisters. Apparently his pops, their actual ganghead, was fruitful and multiplied. Sakai's got a couple of sisters too, now that I think about it."

"Huh, really? We've never met them," Blake noted as they walked along again.

"I think they live off planet, probably with their grandfather, who's technically the leader of the Holy Dragons. But he's turned everything on Makarzia over to Sakai, so."

Weiss turned her head, squinting a little... not to see better, but to insulate herself against the glare of pink neon and flashing pink and purple strobe lights, the chipper shriek of girls singing lewd things in an extremely cutesy Nipponzi dialect cutting through the rest of the crowd and various flickers of other music. "Did Pink-neechan decide to send her own team?"

Kai looked over and snorted. "Nah, but that's a Nipponzi girl gang or I'll eat my crystalslicer. Probably started by some Neokuza's annoyed sister a century ago and now it's tradition for all the other Neokuza to treat them like 'imouto', if I had to guess." Then she frowned, turning her head down a bit. "Just keep walking, don't look."

"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked, frowning but keeping her own eyes averted from the line of cars... and reaching out to nudge Ruby's head forward as the younger woman's neck started to crane.

"Jujukons. Of some variety," Kai muttered. "Supposedly they can put a hex on you if you look them in the eye."

Weiss snorted. "Surely you don't  _ believe _ that."

"No, but looking them in the eye is basically you making a point of not believing that, it's like a direct challenge to their street cred. We didn't come here to make any more enemies than necessary, just keep your eyes averted around the glowy skeleton paint on dark skin."

They observed a handful of the other racers, before finding themselves moving into the more fairlike portion. It was a five-way intersection with wide sidewalks, looking like it had probably been intended for much higher-class street fairs when it had been built some five centuries or more before, but as it fell out of high-end upkeep and started to feel its age, had been given over to the night creatures. Now it was host to a teeming mass of gangbangers, night creatures, lifestylers, and a few poking-in curious daytimers. 

While technically only the actual racing teams of gangs from the sectors around the current one were invited in, the ban on intersector gangbanger travel was generally given only the most token of attention, smoothed over by tipping the security and behaving yourself. Kai saw a few Holy Dragons she was passingly familiar with having ramen with some of their Enlightened Lion counterparts, some Slicers digging through the wares at a clothing stall, and at least one Syndicate guy chatting up a dark-skinned girl with numerous small, tight braids and a smile that said she was going to milk more than one thing of his dry.

"Kai! Kai! Look!" Ruby suddenly said, pointing aside while tugging on Kai's jacket arm.

"Hm?" Kai looked, raising her eyebrows at what looked like a young Santaskele sitting on a folding chair getting laser-tattooed by a guy who she'd be surprised if he could see through the haze of the two cigarettes he was smoking simultaneously. "Yeah, lots of skinart gets done at these."

"I wanna get my tattoo done here!"

"What, why?"

"'Cause it's a good luck charm! I know Yang would never lose and make the memory of the night I got my first tattoo done a bad one!"

Kai snorted. "I gotta say I love that optimism, cuz. Okay, okay, but not that guy, alright? We'll find you someone good. Here, I know, this guy has quality work," she said, diverting their little group towards a guy who was selling mostly jackets and ponchos. "<Hey, man, how's it going tonight?>" she asked the vendor in her limited Mehiksa.

A grin spread across his tattooed face, showing off LED-encrusted teeth. "Your Mehiksa's bad, chica, but it's bad like someone who learned on the street at least."

"Sorry man, not really spoken in my megasector yanno?" she replied, offering her hand for the shoulder-bump motion. "Nice stuff you got here, love the skulls, this only for Santaskele or can anyone buy?"

"It's for everyone, homes, they're just our style, not gang markers."

"Cool, I'm looking for something for my grandma."

His grin came back full force. "Your gramma? For reals?"

"What can I say, man, your stuff is  _ just _ her style."

"Cool abuela, homes, whatchu thinkin'?"

"Poncho, maybe you got something in blue? And y'know, she's kinda done the..." Kai made a 'scrunch down' motion with one hand.

"I getchu, I getchu, got just what you're lookin' for, homes."

Kai accepted the proffered garment, grinned as she showed Ruby. "Whatcha think?"

Clearly having twigged on to who Kai meant, Ruby grinned. "Yeah she'll love it."

"How much?"

"That's all hand work, homes, not a single machine stitch, passed down from my own abuela. From me to yours, hundred creds."

"Shit, you gonna make me shame my gramma by arguing with you on that? Fine, slick fucker," Kai replied with a grin, fishing out a bill, then flicking it upward. "But gimme a tip on it, you've got mad fire skinart my dude, know an artist who's here tonight? My cousin here wants her first."

"Shiiiiit most of these fuckers here tonight scribblers, yanno?" The vendor scratched at his ear for a moment, then nodded, shaking a hand. "But I think I hear Jaqui Ten Colors is here tonight, he's a real artist, and loves popping cherries so he'll prolly give you a break on it."

"I'll keep an eye out, thanks man." Kai folded up the poncho she'd bought and tucked it into one of the large inner pockets of her coat, giving the vendor a last wave before setting off.

As they passed by another stall, Blake lagged behind, sniffing repeatedly, then blinking. "... I think that's...  _ actual _ chicken!"

"Ah yeah, I hear this part of town actually goes to the trouble to raise the damn things inside," Kai commented as she fell back, grinning at the food cart. "Let's start trying the grub, guys, along the way we'll ask if anyone's seen Jaqui."

"Ha! How much of you is even left under there?!"

Malware turned her head a bit, in the barest hint that she understood she was being spoken to, before turning her attention back to the datatablet she was using where she was standing beside the car.

"Hey. Hey, cyberfreak. Talkin' to you. I said, how much of you is left under there?" the tower of bulging muscle behind her demanded again, even his cheeks and jaw seeming to bulge with overpumped tone as he scowled.

His similarly jacked female companion grinned. "Did they even leave your pussy, or are you just lopped off at the waist and smooth like a doll now?"

"Yeah, did you even bother to keep that much, hm? Hey, we're talking to you, fuckin' robot!"

Suddenly they weren't looking at the fairly slight green and black form of Malware anymore, but at a rather taller blonde in a yellow jacket. Despite the two hulks having at least half a foot on her, she slipped her glasses off and somehow managed to look at them like they were about three feet tall with hard purple eyes.

"How about you say one more nasty word to my navigator and I pulp what little brains you've got?" she said evenly. 

Both sneered. "Truce area, girl. Can't lift a hand no matter what we say."

"And yet. What I said stands. Fuck off."

Before either side could say anything else, one of the wolf-masked and tabarded security workers stepped up. "Is there a problem here?"

"I don't know..." Yang looked from him to the duo, and then let her eyes blaze red. " _ Is there? _ "

Between that and the actual security, the juicers apparently decided they were done for now and raised their hands slightly, backing off and turning to go. Yang closed her eyes and worked her shoulders a bit, opening them purple again and looking at the Wolf, giving him a nod. Once he'd walked off, she turned to Malware. "Alright?"

"Hm? I wasn't really bothered in the first place," the Demon replied breezily. 

"Still, I'm not gonna let people just go around abusing you. You saved my friends' lives, Mal."

"Just part of the job."

"... Yeah bullshit," Yang said with a snort, folding her arms. "Sometimes you're so much like her, yanno."

"Mm." Malware finally turned around, dipping her horned head. "Whatever. Fine, I appreciate it, if that makes you happy." Then she let out a snort. "And yes, I do, if you're curious."

"Do what?" Yang asked, plastering confusion all over her face, though her eyes flicked to the side.

"C'mon, you've wondered before too, admit it. Yes, I still have my pussy. They're hip attachments but that's still there."

"... Okay maybe wondered a  _ little _ ," Yang muttered, holding up her finger and thumb barely apart. "You are one of the more heavily, uh, 'cybered' people I've met since I got here."

"That's typical for datathieves," Malware said placidly as she turned her attention back to the tablet.

"Is it? I mean, the level you've gone to?" Yang asked.

The Street Demon was silent for a bit, before saying, without looking up, "I actually do appreciate you sticking up for me, and that all of you are keeping to the idea of me being part of your crew. But what we're talking about is private and I don't want to discuss it with you."

"Okay, okay, fair enough," Yang quickly said, holding up both hands. "Sorry if I pushed."

"It's fine. Let's just win this so we can take down Hatanashi."

The words were in that same sort of generally dismissive, easy tone as usual... or an attempt at it. There was an extra firm edge that had slid in there, growing stronger the closer it got to that final word.

'Yeah, HDS is definitely Malware's beef,' the blonde thought, making a mental note to tell Kai later.

"You're Jaqui Ten Colors?"

"I am," the androgynous individual sitting in front of Kai answered, not looking up from the small palm tattoo they were in the midst of doing. "Someone point you at me?"

Kai tilted her head just a little. Though the vendor had said 'he', Kai herself just... wasn't actually sure. Like a lot of really dedicated skinartists, Jaqui was wearing a vape mask, probably occasionally puffing muscle-steadiers along with whatever was their nicotine flavor of choice. The slender body with sleeveless hoodie and baggy jeans didn't clarify matters, and what looked like exocasings covering their hands made that hard to judge too.

... Eh, who gave a shit. "Fella with good tats, selling beaded skull jackets over near the contestant parking. Told me you were the abso for who to have pop my cousin's cherry."

Jaqui finished up the palm tattoo and traded pleasantries with the recipient, giving their head a toss to shift the wave of rainbow-dyed locks. "This your cousin? Pretty skin, chica, glad to have you in my chair for raceday."

"Ruby, are you  _ sure _ about this?" Weiss murmured, laying a hand on her partner's arm. "I mean, it's a tattoo. It's kiiiind of permanent. Plus, your father? He might kill you."

"Naaaah. He'll totally kill Yang though!" Ruby chirped cheerfully, trotting forward and flopping into the chair. "Maybe Kai."

"I'll heal," Kai snorted, folding her arms. "Her sister's driving in the race tonight, so we might needa go before midnight."

"No shit? My homies here setting up a watch party with my trailer, you wanna stick around and watch from here? You buy some food and grub to share, we'll call it smooth."

"Done as fuck, Jaqui."

"Whatchu thinkin', chica?" Jaqui leaned in as Ruby beckoned, listening to a whisper, then raising slim glowing eyebrows. "Shit chica you sure? That's a bit wild for a cherry pop. I mean I'm really feelin' your idea, got a beautiful idea how it gonna look, but it's gonna be pretty vis and it'll hurt."

Ruby actually smirked, silver eyes twinkling. "Guarantee you I've been hurt worse, homes."

"Ah, gotchu, pequeña guerrera, gotchu, then let's do this, off with the wrap and zip down the suit some, we'll do this."

"Wait, just 'some'?" Kai asked with an eyebrow quirk as Ruby unwound the drape-parka and and set it aside, then unzipped the back of her bodysuit down to mid-shoulderblade and tugged it away from her neck... where Jaqui started wiping with some alcohol-dampened gauze. "Ah shit Taiyang actually  _ is _ gonna off me."

"Oh god I can't watch," Weiss muttered, turning away and covering her eyes.

"Everyone!" one of the Wolves called, their mask apparently having more heavy-duty speakers built in. "Could I have you start clearing the parking area! We're going to begin moving the racers to the starting line!"

"Racers, this way, slowly please!" another called, waving a pair of what looked suspiciously like police issue LED flashers in the air. "Pull up to this exit here, we're going to have someone take your info for announcement purposes!"

"Guess that's us," Yang said to Malware, moving to slide into the car. "We ready?"

"As ready as we're gonna get," Malware answered as she settled into the passenger seat, pulling on the four-point seatbelt and settling all the attachments of her cabletail into the slots installed above the center console control screen. "Your stealthy friend actually did a fantastic job tracking down so many maps of the sector, I've built us a model of the streets, what condition they should be in. There's one variable we can't really control, though."

"What's that?" Yang asked... then glanced up as there was a flash. For a second she thought someone had actually fired a gun, but then there was a distant rumble and another flash from above. "Well. Shit."

"No, it's fine, I've planned for it, just that once it hits it will eliminate our advantage, I doubt any of the other teams has the road traction model I've built... it'll still help a little once we're all driving on wet, but that means that we need to take as much of a lead as we can before the rain hits."

"Got it." Yang joined the procession of speeders pulling up to the pair of Wolves, one of them with a datapad. She rolled down the Vulfen's window as she pulled up. "S'up?"

"Driver name, navigator name, car name if any, gang affiliation?"

Yang paused. 

Then smirked.

"Hey, what about more, ah... intimate tattoos?" Blake asked, ears twitching a bit as she watched.

"Seriously?" Weiss muttered, eyeing her friend.

"I know a skinartist in your megasector, very respectful, very discrete, I'll give you their contact info when I'm done here, yeah?" Jaqui replied, eyes focused on Ruby's neck.

"Thank you, I'd appreciate it."

"You know I'm starting to see the appeal myself," Pyrrha noted brightly as she watched. "It looks  _ very _ nice, all the moreso for it being... challenging to norms."

"Bless, chica, feel the same way."

"Well you're not dragging me into this," Weiss asserted, folding her arms over her chest.

"Leave marking your skin to me, hm, Snowbird?" Kai murmured, draping her arms over her lover's shoulders and kissing her ear, enjoying the sight of Weiss's face going red.

Blake's ears twitched again, tail giving a flick as she straightened up and turned. "Oh, there's Buzz and Loren."

"Hey guys, they're moving the racers to the starting line now," the big rabbit-eared woman said, hefting up the large cooler she was holding a bit higher, then looking aside at the car-sized trailer that had had its side lowered down, three big-screen monitors swung out and multiple speakers set up below them. There was even a fairly large-sized canopy set up above rows of folding chairs. "Damn, nice setup, this is where we're watching?"

"Yeah, Loren, Buzz, this is Jaqui, invited us to watch, that's the crew, we're chipping in some stuff. Buzz is that pork rinds?"

"Fuckin'  _ fresh _ pork rinds!" the sharp-toothed man said with a big grin, hefting up the bag that was almost the size of Ruby's torso into the air.

"Damn, was 'spectin' some cheap beer, these guys delivered," one of Jaqui's helpers declared after opening the set-down cooler, hefting out a dripping bottle of mid-shelf fauxtequila.

"My Ma owns a couple bars, so y'know, didn't let us go wanting on race day," Kai said with a grin as she made her way over to one of the folding chairs that had been set up, Weiss settling on her lap after only a brief hesitation.

"About time for the pre-race commentary, you see from there Jaq?" one of the others called as they settled too. 

"My eyes are on my work, fam, but you just crank it."

The screens flickered, briefly displaying the third party OS loading screen necessary to watch pirated stations on Makarzia, before blipping up an image of a pair of smiling women from just above the bellybutton up. One had metallic gold hair and silver eyes that almost could have passed for looking like Ruby's if her pupils hadn't been glowing purple, her smooth caramel-colored skin shining with a number of intricate, circuitry-like gold lines, bare breasts large and completely smooth. Next to her was a girl with cotton candy pink hair threaded through with pulsing-colored LED strands, her makeup such a riot of clashing colors that it somehow worked together, her own large breasts hugged by a tight little pink-sleeved white top with a particularly offensive phrase in ridiculously cute font stretched across the front.

" _ Ohayo~! Welcome to Megasector 8's yearly intersector race night, minna! Koko here with Koko's virtual lover Laan, super excited, super super hype! _ " the pink-haired woman chirped, hopping in her seat a few times to make her breasts bounce.

" _ Welcome, everyone, to all the homies, bangers, honored guests, and even you normies that are joining us tonight in person on the streets or from all across Makarzia, _ " the other chimed in, with slightly exaggerated motions of her head that made her smooth metal hair shift and bob around. " _ We've got a party that's gonna go on all night, and a race that's gonna go on until someone wins or everyone's dead. _ "

" _ With just over a hundred racers, it's gonna be a sugoi dekai race! It'll start here, at this corner of the megasector, and go allllll the way to the other corner! _ " Koko declared, framing her chest with her hands, the crude phrase replaced by a map tracing a long line from one corner of the roughly square-shaped megasector border to the other. " _ The racers can take any path they like to get there, but obviously if they deviate  _ **_too_ ** _ far it's mega mucho impossiburu to catch up to the ones taking the more direct route! _ "

" _ For those of you not familiar with Megasector 8's intersector race rules, to enter you have to stake the ride you're racing in, _ " Laan picked up. " _ So tonight's winner will not only be walking away with mad street cred, but just over 100 of the best speeders tonight's entrants could get their hands on. _ "

" _ We don't have mega much in the way of rules! No vehicle-grade weapons, no gadgets like oil slickers, but then you know the rule of eeeevery gangbanger contest on Makarzia, yes yes lover Laan? _ "

" _ Of course, Koko. _ "

Both women leaned their heads together and chirped, " _ It's only cheating if you get caught! _ "

" _ Now, if you're watching our neuralink-enhanced stream, you'll be able to access the information we're popping on any of the racers you spot, but for our eyeball viewers, we'll bring you the haps on any racers as they actually become interesting. _ "

" _ Haihai~! First of all we'll hit some of the racers that are most interesting! Obviously the first we gotta talk about or it's just baka baka, Hidoyoshi Tanaka~! Aaaa! Aaaa! I know my own gang is competing against him, but I'd sooooo let him do tons of lewd stuff to my tender virgin body, aaaa! _ "

" _ Hidoyoshi Tanaka is one of the shining stars of this sector's own Enlightened Lions, and a driver few would challenge. He's also one of the only racers tonight without a navigator, as he says, 'These are my streets, I don't need anyone to tell me how to drive on them'. Such a badass line, so the drama! _ "

" _ Hidoyoshi-sama has won this race three times before! He's brought honor and tons of cash to his gang with the speeders he's won or added to their ranks! Frankly it's sugoi how so many are still willing to go up against him when they gonna loooooose! _ "

" _ Now, now, Koko, we've got a lot of other very strong contenders! There's Kotunai Masaki! Sure, he's only ever come in second to Hidoyoshi, but that's what rivals are for, riiiight? _ "

"Huh, shit," Kai muttered, sitting up a bit straighter under Weiss.

"What? What's the matter?" Weiss said, shifting her glass of vodka a little, frowning.

"Masaki's Sakai's family name... and that paint job's Holy Dragons work for sure," Kai muttered even as the image of the shining white speeder with its bright scarlet dragon emblazoned on the hood blipped off. "I didn't know his son was in this race."

"I honestly didn't think he looked old enough to have a son driving in this race, at least three years running," Blake added, quirking an eyebrow.

"He and Mikon are older than they look, Neokuza royalty pride themselves on their genetic wellness, Sakai's grandfather is over 130."

"Whoa."

Kai frowned as she sat back, shifting her shoulders uncomfortably. "... I'm having a bad feeling about this," she muttered.

"That sick feeling in your gut?" Pyrrha asked with a rather sharp look.

"Yeah, guess."

"Not unlike the one that you had before you found me?"

"I... guess so, kinda like, yeah, just there's not much it's directed at."

Pyrrha nodded slowly, then passed Loren her bottle of beer and stood up. "I think I will go and stay with my speeder."

"Lucky, c'mon, it's probably just these fuckin' cheapass pork rinds Buzz bought."

"Hey!"

"Mm, all the same. Ruby may have my seat, it looks like she's almost done." Pyrrha fitted her scanner mask back into place and pulled up her hood, turning to make her way back through the crowd.

Kai wanted to protest that everyone was starting to trust her bad feelings a little too much, but when she considered speaking up she just felt a bit queasier, so instead she settled and tried to pay attention to their other competition.

" _ -driving for the Boogity Blazers this year, after her predecessor tragically shot himself five times in the head! _ " Laan was saying, Koko's shirt showing an image of a woman with bright magenta braids, deep brown skin, and almost white eyes, her face marked by a particularly striking bright scarlet skull glowing paint design. " _ Word on the street is that if Zanasha can pull off this victory, she'll be in a direct line to succeed Papa Dileo as head of all the Boogity Blazers! But you didn't hear that from me, Makarzia! _ "

" _ Hee, I wouldn't expect Papa Dileo to live mucho mega dekai long after that, so if I were him, I'd root for Hidoyoshi-samaaaaa! _ "

" _ Those are the top five racers we've got for you, Makarzia, expect to see all five take an early lead! But it's a long race, and expect a few standout newcomers too, we'll bring them up as we see them! But it's not too much longer now, _ " Laan said as a countdown timer appeared on Koko's tits. " _ Let's pan over the startup line as we get ready! _ "

Ruby plopped into the seat Pyrrha had vacated, pouting a little. "They didn't talk about Yang!"

"Geneslicers have never done an intersector race before, so even if Yang wasn't a newb herself, probably wouldn't get much attention," Kai said glancing over... pausing and taking in the sight of the four stylized rose vines now winding in a curling, artistic coils around her cousin's neck like a collar. Deciding to just not say anything and enjoy the life left to her before Qrow or Taiyang ended her, she continued, "If it had been our megasector, they'd probably be all over her considering what a spectacle we've made of ourselves, but likely they won't start eyeing her until she starts pulling even with the favorites."

Grinning, Ruby lit up one of her sweet-smelling cigs, silver eyes twinkling. "Imagine how dumb they'll feel for not introing her when she wins."

"Do a breathing exercise."

"What?" Yang glanced over.

"Your pulse is a little erratic. Breathe some."

"What the fuck, Mal?"

"There's a biomonitor built into the seat, I'm hooked into the car, I know what your heartrate's doing. Why the hell are you nervous anyway? You're supposed to be this towering inferno of confidence or some shit."

"Just the closer that thing gets to going green, the more out of my element I feel," Yang finally muttered. "I'm a good driver, fuck, I know it, but no one's ever  _ relied _ on my driving before. Like I told Kai, if it was a fight I wouldn't think about it. I didn't blink at wading into those guys at the hotel, but this is outside of my comfort zone."

"... You want your comfort zone to be punching people in the brain your whole life?"

Yang blinked very slowly at that. Then looked over at Malware again. "... That was really good advice and why the fuck did it come out of you?"

Malware looked back at her with those glowing cybereyes for a moment, then just bobbed her head a bit. "Always gotta think about the future, right?"

"... Yeah. Yeah sure." Yang nodded again, looking forward at the cars on the line ahead of them and the signal tower that had been set up. 

Somehow it made her feel better on multiple levels, knowing that Malware actually thought about the future.

" _ Is everyone hype hype hype?! We're a matter of minutes away from midnight, the official start of the race! But first we've got a very special treat! _ "

" _ That's right, Koko. As this year's providers of organization and security, the Wolves are allowed to provide the immediate pre-race show! Sometimes these become massive sources of street cred for years to come! Oh look, there... someone's coming out onto the signal tower! _ "

" _ That's Arkana Stark, the youngest sister of Jeone Stark, who's racing this year! _ "

" _ That it is, Koko, _ " Laan agreed as the view switched entirely to the girl of about twelve who was striding along in her own perfectly-fitted black racing leathers, blue tabard, and elaborate snarling wolf facemask, though hers was open enough to still show her mouth beneath it. " _ I've just been told that she's going to be singing the ancestral song of the Wolves. _ "

" _ Whooooa that's sugoi dekai old as hell, Laan! The Wolves have been a Makarzian gang for almost 600 years, any ancestral song they sing is probably gonna be from before their most ancient ancestors got zapped here! Mucho mega honor to hear it! Ssshhh, ssshhh, listen. _ "

Despite her gangbanger garb and the slightly edgelordy mask, there was a solemn dignity to the girl's movements as she turned towards the waiting racers, clasping her hands together and closing her eyes. 

_ Karliene - Wolves of the North _

The words were in a language that had never been spoken on Makarzia, save among the Wolves themselves. And yet the depth of them slowly stole across the festival crowd, people falling still and silent as her voice spilled from hundreds of speakers all across it, filling the streets lined with more watchers, resounding all across Makarzia with the simple sincerity of a song from another world.

"What's she singing about?" Ruby whispered softly, turning her head a little towards Kai.

Kai shook her head a little, whispering back, "... Pain. Loss. Determination. Unity. Vengeance." She swallowed a little against the slight pain in her throat. "... Family."

The redhead smiled as Weiss kissed her cheek slightly... and a roar of applause and cheering went up as Arkana finished her song. She bowed forward almost to the railing in front of her... then grinned, appropriately enough, wolfishly as she turned to the controls behind her and flipped a switch, the electronic signboard above the lightpanel below lighting up with a thirty second countdown.

_ Synergy - Red Line _

" _ Here we go here we go here we gooooooo! _ " Koko declared in a happy shriek as she and Laan appeared up in the corner of the screen, the image shifting to obvious hoverdrone footage of the cars lined up along a wide street in rows, the sound of engines roaring and humming and thumping carrying even to where the rest of the group was sitting a block away. " _ Fuelguzzlers, electrobuzzers, fusionflickers, all of them raging to be freeeeee! Makes me hella mucho sugoi wet, Laan! Here we goooooo! _ "

The solid red lights started flashing. Then blinked over to yellow.

And finally blazed green.

The sound of tires shrieking could probably be heard for megablocks as rubber sought for traction, sending up waves of smoke that could be smelled even from the festival as most of the front line instantly took off. Several racers' dreams instantly ended as they let their enthusiasm get the better of them and crashed right into the cars ahead instead of standing on the brake long enough to get a clearance. Others had better luck jockeying for gaps between the others... specifically one sleek yellow streetspeeder slipping right through the spaces between speeders in the two rows ahead of it and shot right towards the parts of the front line that were already banking around a corner and out of sight.

" _ Whoa hell! Just as we thought, Hidoyoshi, Jeone, Zanasha, Joseph, and Kotunai have all seized an early lead! But that fiery little yellow car is out to  _ **_get_ ** _ their asses, kirei kirei~! _ "

" _ Pulling up info for our viewers now! _ " Out to the side of the commentator's screen, another pair of boxes appeared, showing rotating busts of Yang and Malware. " _ Whoa whoa whoa, check this out, Koko! These mad laddettes are racing for the Geneslicers, a Megasector 7 gang! Driving we've got Phoenix Xiao Long, and navigating for her is one of those Street Demons we've heard about even over here, Malware! _ "

Ruby, Weiss, and Blake all blinked. " _ Phoenix _ Xiao Long?!"

Kai just grinned. 'Go get 'em, cuz.'

Malware had seen it. The moment Yang Xiao Long, Huntress of Remnant, had closed her eyes, taken a deep breath, and held it.

And Phoenix Xiao Long, the Golden-Armed Dragon of Tailtown, had opened them and let that breath out, a half-feral grin curling her lips.

Yang was a Huntress... as Malware understood it, that meant 'standing between the innocent and evil'. Straight-up fights against monsters and men. For them, anything else was just a distraction to do in offtime.

But Phoenix was a night creature. A product of Makarzia. Where driving it like it was stolen was a life skill, a survival skill, as much a part of everything else she was as breathing or drinking.

It wasn't like a split personality... the other woman had just stepped up to another part of herself that she'd been finding since her arrival. Yang lived life with her fists... Phoenix lived life with her  _ everything _ .

Not unlike the day that a scared, injured, hurting slave called Sia had been offered the opportunity to become Malware.

'We might just win this thing after all,' the Street Demon thought, lips curling into a smirk below her mask.

" _ Phoenix is driving a Vulfen HPK named 'Blaze of Glory'! The Flammenbrung company's entry into the superspeeder market, the 'High Performance Karr' was reputed to be hella hype to drive, but that thing's flashing along like nobody's business! _ "

" _ I just took a listen to the engine with the drone's directional mic, Koko, and it's like it's purring and roaring all at once! That baby's been tuned up  _ **_hella_ ** _ fine! And thermal shows it's not anywhere  _ **_close_ ** _ to redlining! Our favorites have definitely got some competition, if she can avoid wiping out! _ "

" _ Better not count our chicky-chans before they're cuddled though, Laan! It's a long race to go with a lot of twists and turns, and a lot of chances for racers to get  _ **_creative_ ** _! _ "

"She doesn't sound like she means with their course," Blake muttered, frowning.

"She means there's several stretches of the track where the drone can't observe the racers well or at all... and remember what they said, it doesn't count as cheating if you don't get caught."

"Alright, we've got a turn coming up," Malware said. "And probably several other racers that took to side straightaways to build up speed. Get ready."

"This one of those 'blind spots' we discussed?" Phoenix asked, not taking her eyes off the road or her focus off of the feel of the car.

"Yup, this is where a lot of 'sudden wipeouts' occur. We'll need to push the engine a little to get ahead of most of it."

"Right. I'm ready for 'em."

She threw the Vulfen into a drift, coming within a foot of brushing the curb with the front bumper before the tires caught and she was flashing forward again. She saw the two merging streets ahead, didn't let herself fixate on them but took it in as streetspeeders started shooting off of them and into the space between the Blaze of Glory and the lead cars, as well as yanking to correct rather than crash into her sides and drifting in behind her. Almost instantly they were under a wide people bridge stretched between two buildings, and the back ends of most of the cars in front of them opened and started ejecting something.

"The caltrops, our tires can take it," Malware directed, Phoenix already giving the Blaze of Glory a juke to the side to send the car next to them skittering away so she could pick the lane with the scattered metal devices... a wise decision, since the low, wide speeder on the other side hit the anti-friction fluid and spun out entirely, another speeder forced to drive through a fireball as a car's navigator leaned out and fired a flare into the gas they'd spilled.

"It's always the cheaters who actually seem the least prepared," Phoenix muttered under her breath as they emerged from beneath the bridge and banked around a corner, now with a small crowd of other racers. "We got another one of those coming up?"

"Five miles ahead, brief one."

"Good, fuck it, they wanna start it, we'll finish it."

"Hup."

As they approached a street where the buildings were close in and with a number of extensions of wires jutting between them, necessitating the drone to drop back, the mechanisms on the other cars started to open again. Phoenix had already passed her shotgun to Malware, and she leaned out the window, aiming briefly before firing a Dragon's Breath round at the back of one.

The spray of gas had just started to come out, and the backflow of flame hit the device in the trunk, causing the whole car to buck upward in back and swing hard, smashing into the back right of the caltrop-dropper. Phoenix briefly zipped up onto the sidewalk around the wreck as it happened, yanking back in front of the slick-producer so hard that they overcorrected and braked, hitting their own anti-friction slick and spinning out.

"Call that trio hoisted," Malware said smugly, before her voice went serious again. "Weather service says rain is already moving into the other half of the megasector, we  _ need _ to close more distance before the rain evens all our odds!"

"On it," Phoenix acknowledged almost absently, starting to edge around one of the cars in front of them... then blurting "SHIT!" as one of the leaders slammed into it, forced to brake and spin to avoid it. "The hell happened?!"

"Someone in front playing more classically dirty," Malware said a bit grimly. "Nothing we can do, we have to keep moving!"

"No!" Ruby blurted, leaping to her feet as the angular, mirrored black car with its glowing scarlet skull on the hood drifted its back end into the white dragon-painted one, sending it spinning out and smashing into another car, almost taking out the yellow Vulfen before slamming against the side of a building, light already flickering under its hood.

" _ Eeeep! Wow that was pretty blatant, Zanasha just took out Kotunai! That car of hers must be a real leviathan if it could just bang around another one like that! _ "

" _ Everyone knows Kotunai likes to run light! Zanasha probably bet on that! Too bad, so sad! ... Eh? Hey, they're not getting out. Hey! Wake up in there! Your car's on fire, stupid! _ "

Pyrrha didn't bother to turn her comm off, just shoved it in her pocket while it was still broadcasting the race and revved her idling cycle, banking it hard and burning rubber before taking off towards the race route exit, flitting right between the pair of shocked Wolves guarding it.

" _ W-well, these things happen, y'know! Haha! _ " Laan said, the lower right quarter of the screen now showing Hideyoshi's car with flames visibly edging out around the corners of the hood. " _ Just, uh, they usually happen faster than this. ... Damn... _ "

"We need to do something," Blake said as she bolted to her feet.

"There's nothing we  _ can _ do, we'd never get there in time," Kai growled, rubbing her chin, mostly trying desperately to decide whether she should call Sakai or not.

" _ Eh? Hey, Laan, someone said there's a speedercycle on the track! _ "

" _ Huh? There's not supposed to be anything but race traffic on the roads tonight! But you're right, I've got it on the drone's sensors now, it's coming in fast! Look! _ " the full-conversion cyborg called as the figure came into view on the camera focused on Hideyoshi, actually letting the cycle slide out from under her as she rolled and came up to her feet racing to the car.

"Pyrrha?!" Ruby blurted.

Pyrrha grabbed the door and yanked, got no result, and then yanked again, this time putting her Semblance into it, flinging the door off of its fastenings and tossing it to the ground. Kotunai's navigator was slumped unconscious, and with a flick she extended her sword and sliced through his belt, hauling him out and rushing to the opposite sidewalk to lay him down.

When she rose and turned to rush back, she had to jerk herself back onto the sidewalk as a flurry of late starters rushed by, in an awful hurry despite the fact that they were in for more of an honor finish at this point. Gritting her teeth, Pyrrha waited for them to pass, then rushed across the street again.

The sound of a horn blaring had her whirling to see a car rushing right at her. With almost no hesitation she slammed her hand forward, not quite making contact with the hood as her Semblance hit it hard and sent it flipping end-over-end through the air above her head, landing heavily on its tires and sort of weaving off down the road at a few miles an hour.

"I am  _ walking here _ ," Pyrrha snarled.

Throwing herself into the car, she started cutting Kotunai's belts... then heard a fresh crackle from the engine compartment, saw flames flare higher around the hood and flash through the vents on the dash. Eyes widening behind her mask, she threw herself forward onto the unconscious man.

Ruby screamed as she watched her friend be consumed by flame for the second time, Kotunai's car erupting in a massive fireball.

Weiss instantly clutched the other girl close and held her, all other eyes locked in horror on the screen as the fire crackled through the now blown-out remnants of the car.

" _ G-geez, that's pretty rough even for Makarzia, folks... Kotunai and that good samaritan, both... huh? Hey, wait, Koko, are my eyes glitching, or...?!" _

_ "Sugoimpossible!" _

Ruby's eyes whipped back to the screen, and widened at the sight of Pyrrha tumbling out of the flaming wreckage with Kotunai on her shoulder, rushing to drop him to the sidewalk and starting to pat out the flames that had caught in his white jacket.

" _ Unbelievable, everybody! Kotunai Masaki has just been saved by some sort of... _ **_invincible girl_ ** _! _ "

Pyrrha slumped to sit on the sidewalk, panting a bit, and as an afterthought patting out some of the flames on her own sleeve. Her Aura was completely spent... between yanking a protective shell of the car's metal around them just before the explosion with her Semblance, and extending her Aura around Kotunai to protect them from the worst of the flames, she was pretty much done for the night.

She flopped backwards, letting her arms splay... then started laughing for no particular reason.

"Fuck, I'm Lucky," she declared to nobody.

"Rain coming up, get ready."

Malware's ability to fine-tune the engine's running specs and the slightly variable position of the wheelbases to match every variation in the surface was about to end. Luckily Yang had drawn up into close position with the top four racers, others falling away as they either made bad decisions about their path, cheated unsuccessfully, or got taken out by the more straight-up dirty driving like Zanasha of the Boogity Blazers seemed to favor.

"Get us tuned for a forward drift," Phoenix said. "When we hit the wet road I want to it to shoot us forward between Jeone and Hidoyoshi."

"Got it."

They rushed into the heavy Makarzian rain like it was a curtain, and almost instantly Phoenix felt the car go out of her control... but then, that was the plan, so it was really in her control. As their car pressed up into the space between Jeone and Hidoyoshi, she smirked... then scowled as Malware started cursing. "What?"

"Someone's trying to fucking  _ hack us _ mid-race!" the Demon snapped back. "Joseph... that fucker from the Chromeslammers has a datathief as his navigator too, only way the signal would be this strong!"

Phoenix's eyes flicked to the shiny, silvery vehicle on the other side of Jeone's. "Backhack him, fuck him up."

"You sure?"

"He started it, you finish it. I'll handle controlling the engine outputs for a bit, you focus on that."

"On it."

Phoenix's eyes flicked to the side. Zanasha's car was edging into Hidoyoshi, gradually forcing his car bit by bit toward the Blaze of Glory... for a moment Phoenix considered a tactical nudge to push Hidoyoshi into her instead. But aside from the risk to life and limb... it didn't make tactical sense, they needed Hideyoshi's car as whole as it could be to hold it hostage.

Besides, no matter what name she accepted to define herself, one thing would never change... she stood between the innocent and evil.

_ Aram Zero - Phoenix  _

"Alright, I've fought off the hack, I sent him a nice little system virus that'll kick in when he... what are you doing?!" Malware yelped as Phoenix took the limiters completely off of the engine and extended the wheelbases as far as they'd go even as she slammed on the gas.

"Driving angry," Phoenix growled, the long drifting turn she executed to take the lead sending up a long plume of water on the barely-gripping roads as well as jostling her sunglasses down, revealing blazing red eyes. "Come get me, bitch."

Just as she'd expected, Zanasha took it for the direct challenge it was, shooting past Hidoyoshi and into a similarly reckless turn, though hers saw the back end of her low-set monster of a car smash into a hydrant and knock it flying into a wall, the column of water shooting into the air to join the rain coming down. 

"You'll burn out the engine before we get to the finish line!" Malware warned, but something told her that adjusting the settings back down was just asking for trouble.

"We can take it," Phoenix answered evenly, as if the car were herself, hands turning the wheel ever-so-slightly, even that slight motion sending them banking through the oil and water forming a slick surface on the wheel, Zanasha's car almost slamming into the side of the Blaze of Glory as she caught up and managed a slightly tighter turn.

" _ Phoenix is pushing the Blaze of Glory to the redline... but Zanasha's Otherside is heating up too! Zanasha can't risk any more of her dirty driving in this deluge! Now it's a contest of wills, who's willing to push their car to flaming out! Who could have predicted it would come down to two newbies! _ "

"C'mon, sis, you can do it," Ruby whispered.

"She'll never lose in a battle of wills, but will the car hold?" Blake whispered.

"Laan doesn't understand." Kai was grinning without reservation, her own red eyes flashing. "This isn't a contest of wills... it's a contest of trust."

"Zana! The finish line is just ahead!" Brigitta urged, eyes wide behind her glowing white skull makeup. "We can make it! Push it just a little harder and let's leave that blonde bitch in de dust!"

Zanasha's white eyes flicked to the readouts, sweat starting to ooze out through the makeup on her forehead. Everything was in the red, warnings flashing, but just another minute, yes? Just another minute! It would hold just another minute, right?!

But it was Letonne's crew that had built this car, serviced it, revamped it to her specifications. They'd turned on Letonne... but she had their loyalty, she could believe in their work...

... couldn't she?

Phoenix's glowing red eyes never left the road ahead of her.

She had worked on this engine. Her sister had worked on it. Her cousin.

She believed in the Geneslicers. She believed in the Holy Dragons. The Freedroids' software and tuning, the Transcendants' cooling system, the Syndicate's illegal black box overclockers, the working girls' attention to detail. She even believed in the Street Demons, much as she believed in the one in the seat beside her.

The car they had made together would come through for her. There was not a single question in her mind.

"Zana! The finish line!" Brigitta cried, pointing at the glowing red line projected across the street.

Zanasha nodded shakily, touched the gas just slightly... and an alarm wailed. With a shriek, she slammed her hand down on the emergency shutdown and heat suppression button, the Otherside braking hard and weaving as it dropped away, the Blaze of Glory shooting ahead, two other cars flitting past it in hard arcs and streaking after the Vulfen as it flashed across the finish line.

"MERDE!" the Boogity Blazer screamed, slamming her palm against the wheel.

Phoenix banked the car as she braked, bleeding off momentum into the turn as she gradually came to a rest sideways, the car still moving as she opened the door and stepped out, standing with shoulders squared as she stared back at the obsidian leviathan still resting on the other side of the finish line. Unflinching as its driver got out and slammed the door, stepped forward a step, and glared into her eyes as if it would strike her dead right there.

The blonde woman didn't even blink.

Zanasha gave first. Her head waivered, as if wanting to look away but still fighting with all her will to hold the other woman's gaze. Then she wheeled and slammed down a fist on the hood of her car, giving a howl of rage that echoed into the rainy Makarzian night.

Only then did Phoenix turn and return to her car. She had a victory party to participate in.

"Losing does not feel good," Hidoyoshi said in the bar where the three front-finishing teams were gathered, his low voice slightly rough, but that seemed natural... other than being a bit stoic, he seemed in decent spirits. And he raised a shot glass of sake towards Phoenix. "But I would rather lose to a good driver than see it go to that honorless wretch. She shames her own gang... luckily you did not allow her to shame the megasector."

"Doin' what I can with what I got," Phoenix replied with a grin, raising her shot of vodka. "I had good wheels that I trusted, and a reckless disregard for my own life."

"Ahem."

"Aaaand the life of my navigator, yeah, that I'm less proud of," the blonde chuckled. "Sorry, Mal."

"Eh. We won, that soothes a lot of butthurt." The Street Demon wasn't drinking, her mask still in place, but the light flick of her cabletail seemed vaguely contented. 

"Well. I wish you good use of the Dire Straits, Phoenix," Jeone added, toasting with his own shot of whiskey.

"And the Heavenly Mane," Hidoyoshi added, albeit a bit more mournfully.

"Actually, hate to talk shop at a victory party, but could we discuss that in semi-private?" Kai said, stepping forward and tilting her head towards one of the booths with Phoenix trailing along after.

Hidoyoshi raised an eyebrow, but nodded, following them over and sliding into the opposite side. "You have a proposition? I am not opposed to buying back my car, though I will never race it again. Still, there is... sentimental value."

"I understand. We're willing to give it back, and not for cash." Kai let that sink in for a moment before she said, "Awhile back you managed to lift a pro-lawenoff speedwagon. Congrats on the brains and ball-balls  _ that _ took, by the way," Kai added with a scoff but entirely sincerely, Hidoyoshi smirking. "I want it. With everything it had loaded on it when you lifted it. You give us that, you can have the Heavenly Mane back, and ten cars from the rest of your choosing."

Hidoyoshi stared at her for long moments. Then said, "It must include the Blaze of Glory."

Kai saw Phoenix flinch out of the corner of her eye. Immediately shook her head. "No. Twenty of the other cars."

"It must include the Blaze of Glory or no deal."

"Then no deal," Kai replied, starting to scoot towards the edge of the booth.

"Kai," Phoenix hissed, grabbing her arm.  _ We  _ **_need_ ** _ that thing! _

_ We built the fucking car together. You trusted it with your life. Fuck it, we'll find another way to get through the door, he can go- _

"Twenty-five then."

Their heads shot back over towards Hidoyoshi.

"Twenty-five of the cars of my choice." A little smile played around his lips. "And you will return to race me a year from now."

Phoenix slowly raised her eyebrows. "Decent chance I might be dead then."

"Such things happen. In that case, I will not hold it against you. But otherwise, twenty-five cars of my choosing. You may keep the Dire Straits and the Otherside... one I would not wish to offend my sometime ally, sometime enemy by making a trophy of it, the other is tainted with death and dishonor. We shall meet at the megasector border to do our exchange, tomorrow night."

"Works for me." Kai reached out a hand and shook Hidoyoshi's, waited for him to shake Phoenix's as well. "We'll be in touch, nice bargaining with you. See you in a year, I guess."

"I sincerely hope so."

Phoenix eventually stepped out, deciding she needed a little break from the party to have a smoke and get some of her thoughts from a simultaneously very long and very short-feeling night in order. Then she blinked as something leapt out of the bushes, not even really registering as a threat, especially as fists started thumping in ineffective downward strikes against her chest.

"Give it back! Give it back!"

"Brigitta!" Zanasha hissed as she stalked over from around a corner, grabbing the smaller woman by the upper arm and giving her shake. "Enough! Stop!"

"Give back de Otherside, you big white bi-!"

"ENOUGH!" the white-eyed woman snapped in a furious enough tone it finally cowed her navigator. "Stop actin' like a child." Slowly, she turned her head back to look at Phoenix... and scowled as purple eyes met hers without flinching again. "You know what it mean to look us in the eye, chile?"

"Seems I heard from my guy Buzz that it means I'm challenging your street cred." Phoenix drew on the cig in her mouth, turned her head slightly to blow out the smoke without her eyes leaving Zanasha's. "... Got a point?"

"You aimin' to make an enemy of me?"

"I think we both know I would have made an enemy of you no matter what if I won. I don't see that it makes much difference." Phoenix puffed at her cig for a moment more, then leaned down, directing her next stream of smoke down and away while actually leaning into Zanasha's gaze. "You want to work this out, feel free to wander over into Seven whenever you get the balls up for it. Or I'll be here next year. Either way, try something or fuck off."

Zanasha tilted her head a little, magenta braids swaying... before she smirked. "They say it's nae bad for someone to have somebody they really, truly hate. Keeps the mind focused and the feet movin' forward."

"Move 'em in another direction. I don't hate you, Zanasha... I just think you're exactly the sort of person I was made to stand up to."

Zanasha pursed her lips... then let out a short string of invective in another language at Brigitta, giving her a yank and a half-toss forward to get her moving before stalking off into the night again.

"Well now. That be handlin' her juuuus' about right, I say."

Phoenix blinked. This one she hadn't heard or sensed at all, and she turned to see a tall, somewhat portly man in a dramatically-cut suit, a tophat perched on his head and gently pulsing glowcane in hand, his face painted in an elaborate skull with numerous minute, pulsing lines of color rushing through it. "Just... taking a guess, you'd be Papa Dileo?"

"De very same, chile, pleasant to meet you," he boomed in a voice that was clearly so practiced at sounding mockingly pleasant that she had no idea if he was sincere or making fun of her as he bowed to her. "Came to congratulate you on your victory, lovely an' fierce it was. And te thank you for puttin' de brakes on Zanasha a bit, for certain."

"Yeah, I was told it wouldn't be that healthy for you if she won," Phoenix commented dryly.

"Oh, I've no botherings about that, 'tis the way things be sometimes, ya know what I sayin'? But that girl, she never lose anyt'in' before. Never taste defeat. That bad for a chile that ambitious and strong, come up high in the world without ever gettin' they face in the dirt now, see what I mean?"

Phoenix slowly shook her head, grinning. "So you wouldn't mind if she had you killed, but you're worried about her having a Gifted Kid Syndrome crash?"

"Dat be about de size of it." Chuckling, Papa Dileo flicked the brim of his tophat with one finger. "Now let's be keepin' this a thing that be spoken of between nobody but you and I, but maybe let's just be sayin' that ol' Papa Dileo be owin' ya one. Jeeees' a li'l one," he added, resting his hands atop his cane. "But ever have a need, you maybe come to the border in the middle of the night, and be sayin' his name into de darkness. An' maybe some help with that problem it come to ye."

'Spooky,' Phoenix thought cheerfully, even as she dropped her cigarette and ground it out. "I appreciate it."

"Then I be lettin' ye get back to de party now. Enjoy de winnin's when they come to ye while ye young, chile... they come less often when ya old, but they sweeter then," he added with a little tip of his tophat before turning and ambling off.

Eventually Kai's crew left the party, having already sold Jeone's car back to him for what it was objectively worth, with no upcharge for sentimental value. 

"Pretty wild, Lucky," Kai commented as they walked back to the truck and cycles. There had already been a number of mentions of Pyrrha's amazing heroic stunt but none of them were quite over it.

"You  _ really _ worried us," Ruby admitted, ducking her head a little.

"I'm sorry. But I was fairly certain when I did it that I would be able to keep both myself and Kotunai safe. It was a very close thing, but."

"How the hell'd you get out there so fast?" Kai asked with a frown as she stopped by the truck.

"I was waiting. When you said you had a bad feeling and a sick feeling in your stomach, I had my bike already prepped and was on the road the moment something happened to Kotunai's car."

"... Kind of a severe overreaction to a sick feeling in someone's stomach," the other redhead muttered.

"Kai, my darling, you are in fact  _ talking _ to a reaction to that sick feeling in your stomach," Pyrrha replied dryly, before starting up her bike and heading off ahead of them.

"... Huh."

"So it's definitely Malware that's out to get HDS?"

"Oh yeah. She's trying to play it cool, but she let some of the hate slip out while we were talking. She's the one who 'wished it' for sure. ... What do you think that means for the mission?"

"... It means the closer it gets to completion, the closer an eye we keep on her," Kai said after a minute of tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. "Not for fucking us over, but getting sloppy and overeager."

"Right. She wants it too bad, she might slip up."

"Hard proposition considering exactly how much of her part of the operation goes on inside her head, but we'll manage." Kai turned that one over a bit, before grinning and changing the subject. "So going all-in on 'Phoenix', huh?"

"I've got my whole damn back covered in one, I figured why not," the blonde chuckled as she lit up a cigarette.

"Hey, do one for me?"

"Yeah, here." Passing her cousin the lit cig, Phoenix did another for herself. "So what do we do with the rest of the cars?"

"Most of 'em we'll just let Niobe handle for us... sell 'em for us or buy 'em off us as she sees they're useful for the Slicers. Maybe see if anyone wants to buy theirs back for a bit of an upcharge. May look 'em over and see if we wanna keep a few for potential future jobs. Wouldn't hurt for everyone to have a fourwheel ride just for utility shit."

She glanced at the center console, this time Phoenix being the one to tap accept. " _ Splendid job, my children, on all fronts. Race won, creds gained, deal set up, assuming Hidoyoshi doesn't try to fuck us. _ "

"Hopefully that won't be an issue, don't need a cross-megasector bullshit right now," Kai muttered.

" _ The Lions are still Neokuza, I don't imagine they'll pull a bitch move like that on us. Speaking of which, Sakai would like all of you to stop by the Wish. Guess who he'd like to talk to? _ "

"Hooboy." Kai chuckled a little. "I hope this doesn't actually succeed in giving Lucky an ego."

The Great Eternal Wish was actually completely empty when they walked in, nobody but Sakai and Mikon standing by the center table they'd occupied before. The group made their way over, the normally foppish man standing with a solemn expression on his face. He turned to face Pyrrha, then ritualistically lowered to his knees, and bowed forward until his forehead touched the floor.

"Um, please, that's really not necessary," Pyrrha murmured, reaching a hand out a bit.

Sakai only held the position for a moment before rising, but his expression was still solemn. "You have saved the life of my son. There are few debts of honor greater than this."

"I... well, I understand," Pyrrha said slowly, reaching up to remove her scanner mask. "But... it is also the way I was raised. A path I set out to walk on a long time ago. I was given an opportunity to save him, so I did. I just considered it the right thing to do, and... I understand why you feel like you do, obviously, but-"

"But her honor compelled her to save your son, Sakai," Kai interjected. "To place too great a debt on yourself because of her actions would shame her."

"... I see." Sakai nodded slowly. "Normally, this would be a lifelong debt to you, Nikos-san, but... if there is some gesture I could make instead, something perhaps more material?"

Pyrrha clearly started to demure again... then blinked. Then, slowly, she smiled.

"Well. Perhaps if it were something... material."


	15. Roundup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's one last job to take care of before the big infiltration at Hatanashi Data Systems... but it will involve stepping across a subtle line that leaves the crew wondering just how far they've wandered off their original path.

April 30, 2993, 15:22 (Local Makarzia time)

  
  


"I just... need... a moment," Kai murmured, head in her hands.

"Breathe, Kai," Pyrrha urged gently, rubbing the other redhead's back. "It will be alright."

"Just... it happened so fast, and..." Kai pressed her hands up across her face, indeed took a shuddery breath and let it out in a rush, and raised her head to stare. "Fuck, I think they might look even prettier in the sunshine."

The line of Vulfen HPKs did look far sparklier even in Makarzia's wan afternoon sunlight than they did at night... though considering, Kai really thought a bit of dark and neon glow had brought out their lines better. Still, they were amazing. She had no idea where Sakai had tracked down a seventh and how he'd had it done in dark red with bronze accents so fast, but apparently the idea of paying off what should have been a life debt by just throwing money at it had been sufficient motivation.

"Ruby! Come down from there! You'll hurt yourself!"

"Neverrrrrrr!" Ruby called back from where she was laying face-down on the roof of the cherry red Vulfen, hugging it.

"Come! Down! Now!" Weiss snapped, yanking on one of Ruby's ankles, apparently not considering that this was more likely to result in Ruby breaking something than just leaving her on the car.

"Y'know he'd have given you almost anything," Kai commented as Pyrrha settled down on the sidewalk beside her, looking aside at the other redhead. "You could've even just asked for the money we need, he'd have paid it."

"Mm, true... but as I recall, part of the point of getting the money as we are is showing your competence to the Guild, yes?" Pyrrha pointed out with a smile. "Besides that, we have made a commitment to this job. I do not think anyone would feel right just walking away from it now."

Kai examined Pyrrha as green eyes turned back to the line of cars appreciatively. What she wasn't saying still came through loud and clear.

'And I still need more time to make peace with going back.'

Well. That was fine. Maybe they all did.

"I'll definitely say this one worked out nicely," Niobe said that night as they all gathered at the table, Malware standing on the tabletop as a foot-high holographic projection that seemed to amuse Ruby endlessly. "The deal with Hidoyoshi went smooth, Sakai put the funds for the Blaze of Glory back in your account along with your other rides, you made some friends, couple enemies, both positives depending on how you look at it."

"Enemies are positive?" Phoenix said dryly, tapping ash off her cigarette. 

"What was it your new one said? 'Keeps the heart focused and the feet moving forward'? Something to be said for that." Niobe chuckled, then waved a hand. "Anyway, we're about ready for the next job, yes?"

" _ Whooooo's ready to become kidnappers? _ " Malware spoke up, waggling her tiny holographic hands.

"Kidnapping?" Blake made a face. "Oh goody, we're finally getting into crimes I never participated in when I was a terrorist, that's fun."

"What, do a lot of identity theft in the White Fang?" Kai asked, glancing over and quirking an eyebrow.

"You'd be surprised, we almost managed to ruin Weiss's brother's credit when he was only twelve."

"It was  _ you _ !!"

" _ Ladies, focus? _ " Malware waited until eyes were on her before continuing. " _ There are three individuals that, if we trip anything at HDS, they can do something to bring the hammer down on us. Killing them is too high-profile, plus I had a feeling it might offend your sensibilities. Our other option is to just take them out of circulation for about twelve hours. _ "

"So it'd need to be daylight," Kai murmured, looking at Niobe.

"I talked to the gangheads, you're clear to work in daylight as long as it's not violent," Niobe supplied. "That was their addendum... you want to take these guys off the streets, no just clubbing them unconscious and dragging them into the back of a van or something."

"Mm. Think we can manage that. Are you saying that once this is done, we'll be ready to go on the big one, Mal?"

" _ Yeah, let's take a day, everyone needs to get their minds right, their gear prepped, and spend a good while going over our infiltration plan. Once we lift these three off the streets, we  _ **_have_ ** _ to move on Hatanashi that night. Any longer than twelve hours and they'll 100% know someone's making a move. It's gonna be risky as it is. _ "

"So what percentage would you say they know we're coming?" Weiss piped up.

" _ Honestly? Maybe fifty-fifty. Higher for them figuring out we're there mid-job. But since we're only going to one of the lower levels and a less secure room, I'd say our chances of pulling the job off are high even then. Again, don't worry... the majority of the on-site security is automated. Autoturrets and drones. _ "

"The majority, you say?" Pyrrha prompted.

" _ If a big enough deal gets made they'll call in their own little PMC, about 1,000 highly trained human troopers. Let's try not to make it a big enough deal. _ "

"Alright, you heard her, let's head down to one of the rooms downstairs, start going over our plans, and turn in before the sun's up." Kai grinned. "Luckily, I think I have just the idea of how to get our trio of admins off the street."

Yacob winced as red and blue lights started flashing in his rearview monitor, and his windshield HUD lit up with a 'PULL OVER' image and a blinking arrow guiding him to the curb. He glanced in the rearview monitor and quailed... it wasn't even one of the normal cruisers, it was one of those massive ones with the visible weapons emplacements! What in the world?!

Still, he pulled over as guided, rolling down the window and turning off the engine, trying not to sweat as he watched the big vehicle's doors open, a pair of women in sharply-cut blue and white uniforms dropping to the ground, the one that approached the driver's side door adjusting her hat slightly before leaning in, staring at him from behind mirrored lenses.

"Good afternoon, officer," he said. He may have been just a paper pusher, but he did work for a spycraft company... he knew better than to ask any questions or say anything admitting guilt.

"Good afternoon, Mister Lerner," the black-haired officer said in an even tone. "Could you step out of the vehicle, please?"

'What?' He frowned, but after only a moment's hesitation worked the door handle, the officer stepping back, her eyes apparently on him as her blonde partner strolled around the car, eyeing it appraisingly. "What seems to be the problem?"

"We had an anonymous report," the black-haired woman said flatly, as if already having judged him and found him guilty. "Could you walk back and forth for us, please?"

"What?"

"The length of the car. Twice, please, we need to judge whether you're under the influence of some form of narcotics."

"Oh, for...!" Sighing, Yacob tried to keep calm as he strode back and forth the length of his own vehicle before stopping and giving the officer a mildly sour look.

"Oh yeah, I'm seeing the evidence, he's guilty as hell," the blonde announced suddenly, tugging on her black leather gloves as if not quite able to get the feeling of having brushed something dirty off her hands even through them.

"What?!" Yacob called as he suddenly found himself being turned and shoved forward across the hood of his car.

"Yacob Lerner, you have some rights, probably, most likely, whatever," the officer declared as she fastened a zipcuff around his wrists and tugged it taut before yanking him back upright, her and the blonde marching him towards the back of the vehicle.

"Wait, what?! Hey! Hey, are you even real cops?! Hey!" he demanded as they half-tossed him upward into the open door on the side of the long vehicle.

"That seems like a question you should have asked earlier, sir," the masked woman in thug clothing said in a shockingly pleasant tone as he stared at her in shock. "By the way, I'm sorry," she added just before jabbing him in the neck with something.

"Lerner's conked and in the holders," Kai reported as Blake and Phoenix got back into the cab, bundling her own hair up under a police cap. 

" _ Good. He was a desk jockey, never been in the field, the other two will be cannier. _ "

"We've got it, no worries."

Linn Dross pursed her lips. Stupid traffic. What was the point of leaving the office early if she was just going to get stuck in traffic with a bunch of... 

Well. Whatever they were. She'd tried various times over the years to come up with a good catchall term for people who didn't work in spycraft, and had never been satisfied with any of them. She always wound up sounding like a young adult novel.

Didn't mean she couldn't hold them in at least mild contempt.

"Finally," she hissed as she pulled around the blockage and hit an exit... only to yelp as an extremely shiny silver car flitted past her so close it  _ had _ to have clipped her bumper. "What the hell?!" she yowled as she saw the car's emergency flashers start as it pulled up to the curb. Pulling over as well, she briefly checked that her gun was still firmly in its holster under her jacket before climbing out.

Some spoiled little rich girl with two-tone hair had hopped out of the silver car, her clothes gaudy and expensive and slightly too young for her even though she only seemed in her late teens... just overall  _ juvenile _ and it immediately frustrated Lin. "What do you think you're doing, driving like that?!" she demanded as she stalked up to the youth.

"Um, ex _ cuse _ me?!" the girl demanded back, silver eyes widening in apparent fury. "Like,  _ you _ were the one in the way, yanno! Look at the damage to the car Daddy bought me,  _ look _ !"

Scowling, Linn started to snap that she didn't care about any damage, but that the little fool had better care if there was any to  _ her _ car, when there was a bwoop and flash of red and blue, a police wagon drawing up.

'Good, professionals that will know who I am,' Linn thought smugly, amused at the idea of having the girl arrested and thrown into a clink. Maybe a coed one, if Linn decided she was in a particularly wrathful mood. "It's good you're here," she said evenly as the female officer hopped down from the cab and strolled over. "I trust you know who I am?"

"Of course, Miss Dross. What seems to be the trouble, here?" the officer asked, red eyes flicking between Lin and the provocatively-dressed teen. 

"This little fool drove into  _ me _ and started shrieking about the damage to her car! I want her arrested."

"Whaaaat hey!" the girl protested.

"Suppose we should get on that for you. But first why don't we go ahead and take a look at the damage?" At Linn shooting her a look, the red-eyed officer shrugged. "Can arrest her but can't stop her from reporting it to insurance, ma'am, may as well know what they'll be claiming."

"... You're right, fine," Linn muttered, turning and stalking around to the other side of the car, leaning in a bit. "It looks like just..." She blinked. There wasn't a scratch. 'How could she  _ possibly _ have gotten that close to me without im-'

The injector hit the back of her neck, and just before she passed out Linn made a mental note that maybe it was time for some refresher courses, if she lived.

"Nice fake sideswipe, impressive you managed to not actually make contact," Kai said as she hefted the HDS admin upright, Blake hurrying to help her carry the unconscious woman.

"Like I'd scratch your car. Besides, we can't risk actually hurting her, right? S'why we installed the extra sensors," Ruby said as she moved back to the Vulfen, Ilia hopping out of the speedwagon and climbing into Linn's car.

"One more," Phoenix noted as Kai climbed up onto the bench-style seat. "This is the big one, yeah?"

"Yeah." Kai rubbed her forehead a little as she settled into the seat.

"... Maybe we should just just skip this one," Blake murmured quietly. "I don't think any of us like this one."

"Yeah, I mean, they work for a super shitty company, but this one feels... I dunno," Phoenix muttered as she started driving again. "Are we crossing a line?"

"Kinda feels like it," Kai admitted, glancing out the window. "But we went over a half dozen different plans... we all agreed this is the only one that really works. ... It's not like we're really hurting anybody to get it done. Even him really."

"Hearing it will still hurt," Blake whispered.

"... I know. But we get this and the big one done, we can go back to nice, normal larceny. Let's just... get it done."  _ Okay, Malware, we're almost in position. ... Make the call. _

* * *

"We stole. We broke shit. We even roughed a few people up. All in the name of making creds.

"Nothing ever made me feel like shit like telling Malware to make that call did.

"The rest was just... Makarzia. The way things were done. Most of the people we stole from had insurance to cover it, or had fucked someone over to get the thing in the first place. Most of the shit we broke belonged to other gangs or was being used to fuck people over. The people we roughed up had usually roughed up someone else, or dipped some part of themselves up to and including their head in a world where that was just how it was done.

"And this guy, Etun Mtaro... he was one of the big bad spies. I'm sure he'd done way, way worse. I could have looked at it as what goes around, comes around, y'know? He'd chosen the life too. Not the gangbanger life, the life of hurting others and trading in their personal info, gathering up what they feared and using it against them.

"I still feel like shit about it to this day."

* * *

Etun frowned as his personal comm chimed in the pocket of his jacket. He stopped in walking across the hotel lobby, nodding to the one he'd just had a meeting with and drawing out the device, frowning even more deeply when he saw that the caller was the MPD. He accepted and put it to his ear. "Yes?"

" _ Hello, is this Mister Etun Mtaro? _ " 

"It is, who is this?"

" _ Sir this is Captain Decker with Megasector 7 central dispatch, are you aware that you are listed as the emergency contact for a Mister Elias Grace? _ "

Etun was a calm, collected man... a man who had, in his long career, ordered death without hesitation or blinking. And yet now he felt his blood run cold and a slight quaver entered his voice. "I... yes, has something happened to Elias?"

" _ Sir, it's... it's probably best if you get to Saint Murray's hospital right away. _ "

"Oh my God," Etun whispered, raising a shaking hand to cover his mouth as he turned.

Part of him was screaming to get it under control, to assess the situation, even to see the good in it. One less attachment, just cut the connection clean, one less thing for someone to hold over him. And shouldn't he be looking at this, assessing it for just that?

Every other part of him was screaming and wailing in despair.

" _ Now sir, your connection plan with us covers transport in situations like this, we can have a high-speed vehicle there to whisk you through traffic in less than two minutes, where are you right now? _ "

'Don't, you fool.' "Green Plaza Tower, I'm in the lobby."

" _ Alright sir, we always have a vehicle on that block, it should be pulling up within two minutes. _ "

Ignoring the voice that berated him and screamed that he was walking into a trap, Etun hurried across the lobby, seeing the lights already flashing as the big blue and white vehicle pulled into the hotel parking lot, its side door sliding open to reveal multiple uniformed figures. He gave one his hand and was hauled inside, the door quickly sliding shut behind him.

"... What?" he said, scowling at the sight of two of his coworkers in the restraint rigs along the wall, then felt the injector gun against the side of his neck.

His last thought as he crumpled was that at least Elias was most likely safe.

* * *

"Yeah. His secret husband. The only connection Malware had been able to find.

"Probably the only thing he cared about too much to cut out of his spy's life.

"And we used it against him, just like he'd probably always been afraid someone would.

"Go us. Yay."

* * *

"The Transcendants will keep the three of them conked and monitored, then drop them in front of a hospital once the job's done," Kai reported to the crew as she stepped out of the doorway of the chem clinic. "The conk drugs should muddy their memories, not that they really saw anything identifying anyway."

"We're at the point of no return. It's now or never, and if it's not now, we've wasted everything we've done up 'til this point," Malware asserted. "We go in, we get to the local observation server room, I download the info and upload the virus, we ex. Job's done, you all get your info, and life goes back to normal for the megasector."

Ruby, having changed back out of the trashy rich girl clothes and back into her usual work ones, pouted a little. "Mal... we don't really have to go back to being enemies, do we? I mean... I know it hasn't been that long, but... it's been nice having you around."

"That's the nature of things, kiddo," Malware said with a shrug, cabletail flicking back and forth a few times. "Street Demons gotta fight the other gangs, so other gangs gotta fight the Street Demons. That's just how things work right now. Might be different someday, but don't count on it."

Ruby just looked at her for a long moment... then stepped forward and wrapped her arms tightly around the cyborg, giving her a hug. "Gonna miss you."

"... Yeah, think I'm gonna miss you too, Rubes," Malware murmured, raising a carbon fiber hand to rest it on the back of Ruby's head.

"Yeah, we may as well say goodbyes now, I guess, just in case," Phoenix added, stepping forward and offering her hand as Ruby stepped away. When Malware took it, the blonde pulled her into a one-armed hug. "You were a helluva navigator. Always gonna remember driving with you."

"I'll sure remember you redlining the damn engine on wet streets," Malware chuckled. She shook hands with Blake and Ilia, remarking, "You'd make a helluva datathief someday, lzrd. You've got a future on Makarzia, y'know."

"I know where my future is," Ilia said, glancing at Kai with a grin before looking at Malware and nodding. "But I appreciate it."

Weiss shook hands with Malware as well... though there was a sight look on her face that said she was using the psycomms. Something that seemed confirmed when Malware actually chuckled and nodded.

Malware shook Pyrrha's hand as well, then turned... black and green cybereyes looking into white and red flesh and blood ones.

"I'm not saying goodbye to you before the goddamn job," Kai said with a snort after a moment. "That's just asking for one of us to kak it."

Malware looked at her for a long moment... then chuckled again, ducking her head. "Yeah, maybe you're right. Just... we didn't really say goodbye last time, either, did we?"

Kai nodded slowly. "It won't be like last time."

"Yeah. Sure."


	16. The Spy Spire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time. The crew gets ready to invade the Hatanashi Data Systems building, for the last job in the chain. What awaits them is a harsh lesson that just like the fairy tale is over, sometimes the action movie doesn't roll credits.

May 1, 2993, 23:42 (Local Makarzia time)

"We really breaking into that, huh?" Yang murmured as she stared up at the megaspire from three blocks away.

150 stories of concrete and glass in basic brutalist architectural style... faintly generic and also faintly brooding, like a basic three-story low-rent office house possessed by the Devil and turned into a monolith that hovered over the lesser skyscrapers, spaced out as if giving it a wide berth.

"Remember, we won't be going very far," Malware noted. "We use what we've got to get up to the twentieth floor, we access the server room. We're there as short a time as possible, we ex."

"Malware." Kai turned towards her. "I've just gotta get this out there since it's my crew on the line. If it comes down to us or or your grudge against Hatanashi... which are you gonna pick?"

"... Blunt as a fucking datajack as always," Malware muttered, turning away a bit and shaking her head.

"Yeah. 'Cause it's not just me. I'm responsible for everyone's lives here, Mal. Yours too." Kai regarded the Street Demon evenly. "I need to know what you plan to do. If your grudge is that strong, just let me know now. I'll plan around it, and you do what you've gotta do."

Malware's cabletail lashed a few times. But finally she turned back, neck giving a sinuous little roll as she focused on Kai. "I gave you my word. We shook on it. One former slave to another. I'm your crew until this is done. That includes looking after the rest of the crew."

"That's pretty much what I thought, honestly," Kai said after a moment, grinning, before looking up at the megaspire as well. "Alright, let's get it done."

"Alright, remember, this scatterer will keep the cameras from detecting your thermal signature, but you  _ have _ to keep your heartrate down," Malware cautioned as she fastened the harness around Ilia's middle.

"Right, right, okay." Ilia took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes and concentrating... then checking the inside of her wrist. "... Fuck."

"Here." Blake fished out a tightly-rolled cylinder of paper. " _ Just _ a puff or two, okay?"

"Blake, if that's one of your experiments," Kai muttered as Ilia took the roll dubiously.

"It's  _ not _ , it's from Moore, I... thought I'd try it before I tried doing my own," the golden-eyed woman muttered, cheeks pink. "It's all blue Leaf, though, it should just help you calm down and focus if you only do a little."

"I vaguely remember that ritzy school in Atlas having classes cautioning me this day would come, they just never mentioned it would involve breaking and entering to a 150 story building," Ilia muttered as Kai lit the roll for her.

After coughing and spluttering a little, Ilia took several puffs, then checked her monitor again. This time giving a thumbs-up, she passed the roll back to Blake before turning to head towards the back entry door. Blake glanced down at it... then shrugged, took a few puffs, and passed it to Phoenix.

Kai accepted the roll after Ruby, taking a few measured pulls on it without looking away from Ilia fading to match the background, gradually edging up into the well-lit area, hunkering low to keep her shadow from being too obvious. The nearly invisible Faunus slid herself up to the wall, carefully removing a cable from the harness and bringing it in to attach to a port in the keypad.

_ Good signal? _

_ Good signal, _ Malware sent back.  _ Okay, here we go. _ Then she strolled forward.

Using the data from Blake and Phoenix's scanner glasses, she uploaded Yacob Lerner's gait into her cybernetics, taking on the same manner of walking he did, so that when the cameras hit her own scattering field that made her look like him to them, she'd seem to move like him too.  _ One, two, three, _ she sent, Ilia rolling out of the way as she raised a hand and pressed it to the scanner, sending the fake biometric data along with making a motion of swiping a card.

_ Speed Machine - Mechanized Dystopia _

Once she stepped through the door, she quickly sent a pulse through her and Ilia's scattering fields, causing just a momentary flicker in the camera, the rest of the crew rushing forward in that bare instant and piling inside. 

"Cameras?" Kai asked in a whisper. 

"There, there." Malware indicated with points of two carbon fiber fingers. "Nikos, veeery carefully and very slightly to increase the blind spot."

Pyrrha nodded, lifting her hands and focusing. The cameras glowed black faintly, and very slowly tipped up by the slightest amount. 

"Blind spots achieved, go," Malware murmured, resuming walking down the middle of the hall with Yacob Lerner's gait, the others slipping along hugging the wall or darting across the hallway at points she indicated with little sweeps of her tail. She only stopped about ten feet shy of the elevator lobby ahead, making motions as if rifling through a briefcase as her tail extended over and plugged into a wall panel. "Queuing video and loop. Ready?"

Blake and Phoenix edged forward on one side of the hallway, Kai, Ilia, and Ruby on the other. "Ready," Kai murmured.

"Video is... live."

As the feed of the elevator lobby was replaced by one of Yacob Lerner walking across it that Malware had composited half of earlier that afternoon, the other five rushed forward. As Kai had hoped from the speed and numbers, by the time they made a decision between sounding an alarm or protecting themselves they'd been caught up to.

Blake leaped into the air and backflipped, twisting to land on one guard's back with her arm around his neck and biting him just below his ear, her other hand muffling his shout. Yang dropped and swept his feet out from under him with one leg, ducking into the sweep and scooping his legs up on one arm, Blake landing on her own feet and keeping the unconscious man from thudding loudly to the floor.

Kai went right at the other guard, unsheathing and slashing at his face purely to make him flinch and duck back before twirling to the side and around him. Ilia's metal whip wrapped around one of his ankles and yanked, the already off-balance guard falling back against Kai, completely open for Ruby to jab him in the neck with an injector.

Once the guards were ziptied and gagged, Malware and Pyrrha joined the group at the main elevator, once again using a fake biometric reading to access the panel and summon it.  _ Alright, from here, everything we do brings us closer and closer to eventual detection _ , Malware sent.  _ The security monitors probably aren't paying close attention to the weight sensors in the elevator. But they may notice when Ruby does her thing. And then there's the moment of absolute detection. _

_ When we start cutting through the door, _ Pyrrha agreed, shifting the heavy plasma cutter strapped to her back.

They boarded the elevator, and no sirens immediately started sounding, which Kai had to admit was at least some amount of a good sign.  _ The moment those doors open on twenty, you are go, Rubes, _ the red-eyed woman sent.

_ Hup. _

Indeed, the moment the doors slid open, Ruby fluttered into her Semblance... Kai almost would have sworn she squeezed through far too little space to actually fit her. Though the idea was for her to avoid the cameras where she could, speed was overall the goal here... just to get to the data room as fast as possible and hook up the remote access relay she was carrying. Hopefully the guards would just think they were going crazy if they saw a flutter of red cloth shedding rosepetals on their screens.

_... In! _ Ruby sent a minute later.

_ Hacking, _ Malware responded even as she strode forward, the others clustered around her. Uploading falsified videos in realtime, the Street Demon made it look as if Yacob was walking down the hall alone, just as if he'd only stopped at the water cooler beside the elevator.  _ Here's the next big point where they have a chance to twig us... I'm going to be fudging the system to accept Clarence Justin's keycard but Yacob Lerner's biometrics. _

_ Everybody hold on to your butts, _ Kai added as she ducked aside from the door, eyeing several turret emplacements as she gestured the others into defensible positions.

Malware produced the 3D printed duplicate card and inserted it before resting her hand on the panel.  _ Alright, Phoenix, you ready? _

_ Ready, _ the blonde sent back, hefting the plasma cutter off of Pyrrha's back and quickly bringing it online and to charge.

_ What'd you get it down to in practice runs? _

_ Two minutes. _

_ Have to do. I'll try to stall the system as long as possible, but they're going to know something's up when Yacob doesn't immediately call for admin approval.  _ Malware stepped aside quickly as one door slid open.  _ Go! _

Phoenix quickly stepped up, a blazing circle of purple energy flickering into being and digging into the door, a long shriek like dry ice on hot metal ringing through the hallway. "Shit, it wasn't this loud in practice! Pyrrha, you ready?!"

"Ready," Pyrrha agreed, raising her hands to point at the door and waiting. 

"They're calling Etun," Malware noted dryly, her cabletail twitching where it was plugged into a nearby port.. "The AI I built will give them the runaround for awhile though."

"Almost... almost... Pyrrha!" Phoenix called.

Pyrrha caught the metal door as it started to sag, shoving it inward and out of the way instead, the crew rushing into the dataroom.

"Phoenix, start cutting our door into the next room!!" Kai called as Malware rushed over to the data station, fishing out the copy of Clarence's datadrive and plugging herself into one of the ports on it, the cable of a datacase slung at her side into another, and the final one into the terminal itself.

Malware's cybereyes flickered and shuddered as she started searching for and downloading all the necessary data, datalines flickering across her horns. "Okay... alright, just a few more minutes."

"Weiss, you ready?" Kai asked, glancing over.

"It's going to be a  _ lot _ of glyphs to get us to the next building's roof, but yes, I'm ready."

"Almost... almost...  _ shit _ !" Malware suddenly snarled.

"They cut you out?!"

"They twigged to us  _ way _ earlier than I thought but they wanted to see what I was after! Now that the download's almost done they've closed all the room's ports, we're shut off from the rest of the building!" Malware slammed her carbon fiber palms against the console.

"That means you can't inject the virus?" Ruby asked. 

"No. Dammit." Malware hissed, then turned her head. "All of you ex, I'll-"

"Fuck that. New plan." Kai turned and marched into the next room as Phoenix and Pyrrha finished forcing open a new 'door', drawing her high cal and firing into the window repeatedly without hesitation. "Weiss, launch rune up ten floors, Phoenix, you're first up, smash the window and yank yourself in, Weiss do a second launch rune there to knock us all in, we'll hit the main elevator shaft from there."

"Stop! She might not have enough left to get down from the higher floor if you do that!" Malware snapped, disengaging her cables and following. "Just take the datacase and go!"

Kai whirled on her as Phoenix punched out the window. "You're crew until this job's done, and until that virus is in the deebee we are not fucking done! That was what was agreed!"

"And we're already doing it so you can just shut up," Weiss added primly as she flitted her rapier forward to craft a sparkling white glyph just below the edge of the shattered window.

Phoenix unhesitatingly leaped out of it and onto the glyph, rebounding up off of it like an overcharged trampoline and twisting in midair. Feeling her rise start to slow, she swung up her shotgun with her left hand and fired into the window in front of her, then turned slightly and shot her grappling hook through the already cracked and shattered glass, hauling her through.

"You're turning this into a suicide mission!" Malware growled as the others started jumping out onto Weiss's rune.

"You were gonna make it one for yourself, so if we do that, we do it as a crew together too, now the rest of us are going up, you coming?" Kai demanded.

Malware shook her head, then immediately leapt out the window and onto the rune, launching herself upward, hitting the second angled rune and twisting in midair, landing in a crouch and digging the claws of one hand in to stop her skid. Kai landed in a sideways roll a moment later.

"What's the plan, Boss?" Phoenix asked as they started moving down the hall.

"Access the main elevator shaft, we head up to the admin station on seventy-five," Kai said, transferring her hand cannon to her left hand and drawing her crystalslicer with the right. "Even if they lock that out, you can restore it with Etun's credentials, right?"

"Should be able to," Malware agreed. Then yanked her head up. "Door, coming down!"

A spinning glyph appeared just below the heavy security door that started to drop out of the ceiling, and which was then surrounded by a black glow. "They're trying to force it down!" Weiss said in a strained voice.

"Shit! Okay, Mal, go! The rest of you, ex out!" Kai snapped as she hurried past the door.

"Hey!" Phoenix called.

"No that's an order goddammit, I cannot plan for this seat-of-the-pants bullshit with eight people, we'll move faster with just two! Weiss, Pyrrha,  _ drop it _ !"

After only the briefest of hesitation, both women released their Semblances, the door dropping down and separating them.

_ I've got this. Don't worry, I've got an ex strategy for me and Malware too, Ruby, handle getting them out of here! _

_ Count on me! _ Ruby spent a few moments thinking frantically, then nodded. "Okay, I think I've got it! Weiss, we'll still count on your glyphs to get us as close as we can! I think I can take you and Ilia both with me into my Semblance to get us the rest of the way, Blake can teleport, and Pyrrha, you and Phoenix working together can manage, right?"

"I... yes! I see!" Pyrrha agreed, nodding quickly.

Kai shoved the powered crystalslicer between the elevator doors and yanked down, cutting through the lock, then pointing to Malware. "Try it now!"

Malware tried to activate the door release again, and this time the doors slid apart to reveal the shaft, a hefty set of cables in the center. "I could maybe climb that but it'll take too long."

Kai leaned in and looked up, then back at the Demon. "Can you disable the elevator brakes and program your limbs to launch us off when we're at the right floor, land us at the seventy-five door?"

"... Yes. But you realize that sort of speed is going to break a few of your bones?"

"It's fine, my Semblance will fix me up, do it."

Malware's horns began flickering with datalines again as she programmed in her head. "It's a pretty straight shot on seventy-five to the admin room, but we can expect the security to be heavy duty."

"We'll handle it. Ready?"

Malware nodded, then leapt out, one clawlike hand and both her feet latching around one of the cables, the other hand held out wide. Kai leaped forward, felt the other woman's arm hug tight around her middle. Kai twisted, aimed, and fired once with the hand cannon before twisting again and severing the cable the rest of the way with the crystalslicer.

They shot upwards, the weight of the unlatched elevator dragging them upward at high speed as it plummeted. In mere seconds Malware was launching herself off of the cable, hand instead barely managing to latch hold of the edge of the door. They swayed perilously for a second, before she managed to grip hold with her toe claws, hefting Kai up to help her climb into position to grab the manual release and yank it down.

Both scrambled forward over the ledge and to their feet, finding themselves in a long, wide hallway with a triple-heavy security door at the end... and a whole lot of not-very-hidden openings. Which rapidly began sliding open, deploying security droids of various heaviness and size.

"Well this feels familiar," Malware murmured wryly.

"Yeah, but this time I'm not leaving unless it's with you." Kai brought her hands together, hand cannon pressed alongside the guard of the crystalslicer, for just a moment mimicking the setup of Red Legacy without really thinking about it. "Ready to get it done?"

"Yeah." Malware leaned down, placing the tips of the clawed fingertips of one hand against the floor, the other raised high with talons splayed, legs bent and cabletail lashing. "Let's get it done."

_ Cabal Mind - Second Chance Trigger _

Kai strode forward, already firing into one droid's chest and then swinging into a slash to cut through cables at its neck. Malware launched into the air, rebounding off of a wall over Kai's head and coming down with leg extended, raking first toeclaws and then finger claws across the front of a droid, her tail lashing out to wrap around another's gun-arm, shoving it aside as it tried to fire at Kai, the redhead blasting its head and then the one Malware had clawed.

Without a word, spoken or mental, they moved forward as one, Malware sliding sinuously across the floor or leaping into the air like the blending of viper and predator cat, Kai a crimson crusader walking tall through the chaos, every motion sharp and precise. When a heavy droid deployed from the floor and rose up, Kai wheeled and fired repeatedly into its chest, then dropped down to let Malware use her back as a launchpad, landing on the droid's shoulder and plunging her tail into one of the bullet holes. The droid sparked and fritzed as she found a connection and overloaded it, its gunarms chattering and tearing through its own brethren before it toppled backwards. 

Kai went in hard, swinging and cutting with the crystalslicer, firing where any droid didn't immediately drop. Malware backflipped off the heavy droid and darted after her on all fours, weaving back and forth in front of the redhead, striking at legs and shoulder-checking knees. A mid-weight droid wielding a stun baton tried to step in and batter Kai down, and Malware's tail wrapped around its neck, yanked it off-balance and right into a sweep of the redhead's sword. Kai tossed the hand cannon to Malware and ducked down and away, letting her fire it into a droid's head and curling around to slice the legs out from another one, both of them rising back-to-back, cutting and firing, until Malware flipped the gun back to Kai and launched herself forward and onto the back of another heavy droid, hauling on its head with all the strength in her cyberlimbs, pulling it back to reveal the connecting cables so Kai could jump and slice through them.

For the length of a hallway, they didn't work like temporary allies, or crew, or even old friends.

They fought like Huntress partners.

As the last of the light droids crashed to the ground, Malware bound over to the access panel and hooked in. "It'll take me a minute."

Then both their heads whipped around as another droid dropped from the ceiling, hitting hard in a three-point landing. It was gleaming black all over, shaped like an armored humanoid, complete with helmet-style head. There was just the faintest jitter to its motions though as it rose and slammed a fist against its palm and made a motion as if cracking its neck.

"I've got this, get the door open," Kai said evenly as she turned towards the droid and rolled her shoulders. "Well aren't you an imposing one, I bet they spent a pretty penny on you."

"It was still a bargain," the droid boomed back in a deep, edgelordy voice. "I once ripped a man's skull out and beat him to death with it."

"Oh yeah? Well I once made a robot feel such incredible pain it begged for its life."

"That so? When was that?" the droid demanded, giving a staticy-sounding snort.

"About thirty seconds from now," Kai replied, bringing her weapons up to the ready.

_ Mutha's Day Out - What U See, We All Bleed Red _

The droid came in swinging, a hard snapping jab that extended its arm fully and would have taken Kai's head off if she'd still been there. Instead the redhead had juked to the side, firing twice into the droid's extended forearm to knock it askew and spinning, the crystalslicer dragging along its knee joint in a shower of sparks but not penetrating. She ducked back from the next few swings and then came in cutting, slicing long cuts into the chest armor, the droid shifting back a little with the blows as it looked for an opening, only for another shot from the gun to hit it under the 'chin' and stagger it back further.

"Gave you a personality huh?" Kai quipped as she ducked and spun, arcing around the droid's side firing as she went, trying to hit it under the arm and missing as it snapped its more heavily armored upper arm downward to block. "Wonder why they didn't make it worth a shit?"

"You grew yours yourself and it's not worth much," the droid replied, wheeling and flinging itself into a half-jump as it punched, fist connecting in a flash of scarlet light, Kai hitting the wall hard and immediately spinning away as the droid's shiny black fist dented the metal where her head had been. 

"I have others if you don't like this one," Kai offered gamely as more Aura crackled around her arm to heal it, ducking the next few punches and then actually vaulting over the followup kick that had expected her to duck again, this time firing right into the visor twice. It shattered, revealing sensors and blinking lights.

The droid drew back slightly, then turned its head, the AI apparently realizing that there was actually nothing between it and the hastily-working Malware. It started to turn-

"Pussyyyyyyyyy," Kai hissed with a smirk on her lips.

Its head swung back towards Kai. Then its shoulders rolled and it slammed its fist into its palm again. 

'I can now officially annoy robots, achievement unlocked.'

The droid clearly took some sort of limiter off of its movements as it came in now with greater speed, launching a blistering barrage of punches at Kai, who went on the full defensive. Just dodging wouldn't have been enough, so each one was accompanied with a jab of her gun and a shot to knock the strike away or a slice of her sword to blunt the motion just a little. But bit by bit, as she ducked and weaved, Kai was being forced backwards, until she found herself at the edge of the open elevator shaft, wobbling a little as her heels scooted halfway over it.

"Did you actually expect to beat me, you stupid bitch?" the droid scoffed, drawing back its fist for one more punch.

"I didn't have to beat you, I just had to wait for her to finish," Kai replied with a smirk.

The droid jerked back some as Malware's cabletail wrapped around its neck, and the sharp spike on one of the ends rammed right into the center of one of the sensors revealed by its shattered visor. It twitched and jerked as the surface of the Demon's horns flickered, then powered down and slumped to the side.

"You really can piss off anybody."

"It's a gift, let's go."

"Alright, guys, let's get out of here," Ruby said as they returned to the shattered window.

"What about Kai and Malware?" Weiss demanded.

"We'll have to trust Kai when she says she has an ex strategy for them! Now, get us as far with your glyphs as you can!"

"Right." Weiss took a deep breath, and nodded. "... To save Aura I'm going to have to do them as we go."

"Alri~ght!" Ruby chirped as if that was no trouble. "Okay, everybody get ready..." And then, as Weiss formed the first glyph, she shouted, "Go!"

They ran forward as a group and jumped, landing on the greyish glyph circle and racing across it, leaping off the end as the next one had barely formed, all present trusting in Weiss to get it placed ahead of them. Bit by bit they made their way in a steady descent towards one of the other building rooftops, every ten feet putting their lives in Weiss's hands.

"I'm getting low!" Weiss declared eventually, with an awful lot of distance to go to the rooftop.

"Okay, Ilia, Weiss, get ready to grab my hands! Pyrrha, sis, clump up!"

"Last one!" Weiss called as they ran forward.

"Gooooo!" Ruby called, snatching Ilia and Weiss's hands and twisting as she jumped off the last glyph, twisting in midair, lurching just a little before managing to start her Semblance, arcing into a flutter of red and two stripes of white, shedding crimson and alabaster rose petals and six other colors besides as she arced up and then down towards the rooftop.

Phoenix hooked her left arm around Pyrrha's middle and jumped, flinging her right arm and launching her grapple. It was clear it was going to come up short... until it glowed black and flew forward, yanking both of them along with it until it clamped into the rooftop, Phoenix quickly retracting it and hauling them both in, slamming their stomachs into the side.

Ruby landed on the rooftop, Semblance dissipating as she thrust both hands in the air, Weiss looking at her appreciatively. "Yessss!" the silver-eyed Huntress declared, hopping in joy.

"Nooooo," Ilia murmured wanly, staggering away clutching her stomach.

Blake, fresh from using a series of her shadow clones to hurl herself towards the rooftop, landed in a roll and came to her feet. "Alright, let's get to the street, fast. If Kai does need help, we're not gonna be able to give it from here."

"Working on opening the system back up now," Malware declared as she started typing furiously at one of the consoles, plugging her tail into multiple ports. "Might be a good time to share that ex strategy you had."

"There were plans for an escape tunnel and survival pod when I reviewed the plans," Kai noted as she started searching the floor. "The older set of plans, anyway, they weren't on the newest version they sent to the cops."

"... You're saying you based us being able to get out on a feature it sounds like they eliminated in later stages of the building?"

"No, I'm saying I based it on expecting corp admins to protect themselves and lie to the law," Kai murmured as she tapped one of the tiles, then smirked and fired her gun into it, brushing away the shattered remnants to reveal a handle. "Bin-bon, fuck the popo," she muttered, grabbing the handle and twisting, more tiles dropping away as a door slid open beneath them. "You almost done?"

"Almost... almost... just need a few more ports open and... injecting!" Malware's horns and eyes flickered, an almost savage glee suffusing her voice as she declared, "Yes! This is sending it right into the deebee core! The second it does  _ anything _ it will propagate through every system Hatanashi has!"

"Ding-dong the spies are fucked, let's go!" Kai called, gesturing the Demon through the trapdoor ahead of her before jumping down herself.

They rushed down the tunnel lit by nothing but lines of chemical lights, stopping at a round closed armored door. A quick search revealed another manual panel, Malware twisting it... and both of them flinching back as wind howled, the door opening up right to the side of the building.

"Where's. The. Pod?" Malware growled.

"Huh. Guess they decided to do the tunnel but fucked off with that part." Kai looked around, spotting a cabinet nearby and opening it. "Guess we jump."

"... Fun."

"Can you see anything?" Weiss asked as they all stared up.

"I think... something just opened," Pyrrha replied, tapping the side of her scanner mask. "Yes, that looks like them and... oh dear," she murmured. "They're jumping."

"What?!"

They could all see it, two small forms that were rapidly starting to get just slightly bigger by the moment as they dropped away from the side of the building. Weiss's heart clenched... and then she sagged as she saw ripples of black cloth explode from both their backs and their bodies yank upwards. "Oh thank fuck."

"Man, if I'd known it was gonna involve basejumping off a building, I'd've insisted on going with 'em," Phoenix grumbled. 

The group cleared a spot as the two landed rather heavily, Malware's cybernetic legs creaking a little and Kai's Aura crackling, but both of them apparently whole as they struggled out of the parachutes. "Alright, the virus is in, let's get the hell out of he-"

There was a wail of sirens... that weren't actual lawenoff ones. But the vehicles looked similar as they flooded in from both sides of the streets, just painted entirely black with small white 'HDS' logos on the sides. Armored troopers poured out of the vans, pointing rifles at the small group of women in the center of the road, most of them exhausted and battered.

"Well. Fuck," Kai muttered, shoulders slumping a little. 

"Surrender yourselves or die immediately," several of the vans broadcasted with different voices but in near unison.

Kai was just deciding whether to do just that or actually say 'fuck it' and go out in a hail of bullets rather than submit herself and her crew to corp "justice" when there were several soft  _ foont _ noises followed by clatters and hisses, the armored security officers yelping and shouting as hissing white gas started pouring out. The temperature abruptly began to drop as the area filled with a fine white fog like a cold winter morning near the lake.

"Heh," Malware whispered.

Red Tide strolled right out of some of the heavier mist to stand next to one of the figures with more markings on his uniform, staring at his shocked expression behind his faceplate over her vape mask. "S'up?"

"You... who are you?!"

"Just came to tell you to fuck off. Y'know. As y'do."

The commander snorted. "You and what army, freak?"

Red Tide just looked at him. Then glanced over towards the eight in the center of the street. "Can you believe he actually fuckin' said it?"

The mist began to settle, revealing Street Demons. Wherever they'd come from, they were everywhere... lining the streets and filling the alleys, mixed in among the security officers, perched on vehicles. Every black-armored figure suddenly went very, very still, staring straight ahead with wide eyes as most of them realized they already had blades at their necks or guns to their heads.

About the same time, the lights in the building next to them started to flicker, and then clicked off, disappearing floor-by-floor, until even the sign at the base of it beside the entrance went dark.

"And there went your paycheck, boys," Malware announced loudly. "You gonna die for free?"

The commander looked at her, then at Red Tide... then dropped his pistol and raised his hands, starting to back away. "Fuck that. I've got kids."

The sentiment was apparently widely shared, the security officers drawing away as they realized they were actually going to be let go. Eventually the road was cleared, though most of the weapon wagons were left, Kai watching somewhat ruefully as Demons got into them and drove off.

"Whew." Malware laughed, the sound growing louder and more enthusiastic until she threw her hands in the air. "We did it! We did it! How does it feel to be living calamities, everyone?!" she asked gleefully.

"Dunno what's so calamitous about getting  _ those _ guys off Makarzia," Phoenix muttered.

"Off... hahahahaha!" Malware's laughing only redoubled, actually clutching her stomach as she bent forward.

"Um... I don't get it?" Ruby spoke up.

"Y-you didn't think what would happen  _ after _ ?!" Malware lifted her head, even her cybereyes showing how wide she was smiling. "Hatanashi is  _ done for _ as a company! They employed tens of thousands of people! The company might struggle on for as much as a week, but no one's getting paid, no one's getting their severance packages! They're all basically on the curb  _ now _ !"

"The human cost will be truly staggering," Red Tide added pleasantly as she strolled over, looks of slowly dawning horror starting to come over the other seven's faces.

"W-wait, you're saying... you're saying this  _ hurts _ people? But... like..." Ruby glanced at the building, then at Malware almost pleadingly. "I thought they were bad guys?"

"Is that what you thought this was, Rubes? Oh  _ Rubes, _ I'm  _ sorry _ !" Malware declared even as she laughed. "This isn't a movie where you have a boss fight with the CEO and the big evil company is defeated, roll credits with overproduced top ten single! This is reality! Tens of thousands of people out of work! Fuck 'em 'cause of who they worked for, but did you think it wouldn't  _ hurt people _ ?!"

"Fuck, Malware," Phoenix hissed as she draw Ruby in against her side, tears having started to slip from silver eyes.

"Stop it," Kai snapped, red eyes flashing.

"Heh... heheh..." Malware slowly straightened up, the lashing of her cabletail slowing. "... Heh. Yeah... yeah, I shouldn't rub it in. It wouldn't have been possible without you guys. You made it all possible. Don't feel bad Rubes," she said more gently as the silver-eyed woman stared at her with betrayal on her face. "Seriously... did you think no one would get hurt when you saved the world?"

"I..." Ruby looked down, shaking her head.

"Someone always gets hurt. Sometimes a lot of someones. That's the cost of doing  _ anything _ big. You can't just tell yourself your glorious cause justifies it... or is that what you were planning to do?"

Ruby shook her head and closed her eyes, saying nothing.

"You know," Weiss said coolly. "I'm more sure than ever of what I told you before."

Whatever that meant, it seemed to put a heavy damper on Malware's good mood. The last traces of laughter died, and she instead stared at Weiss hard. Her eyes flicked to Kai briefly, before she nodded. "Yeah. Probably right. S'fine. I know where I belong." She turned, Red Tide falling into step beside her as she walked off. "Great job everybody."

No one really had anything to say. Until they were gone, and Ruby whispered, "I thought we were doing the right thing."

Kai suddenly remembered what Sakai had said... and more, what she'd said to Weiss a long time ago after the crash of the Argus Express. She'd still never felt it quite so acutely as when seeing the misery on her cousin's face, the slight shock and pain on everyone else's.

"Sometimes the right choice still has consequences, Rubes."

"We did the job and defeated the bad guys," Phoenix murmured, turning her glass of strawberry vodka around several times in front of her. "Yaaay."

"I suppose perhaps this is what it is to grow up," Pyrrha said in a heavy tone as she looked down at her glass of cider. "To realize that it is not as simple as completing the mission and the... credits roll."

"... I guess at the end of the day we can't really deny that Malware was right about that," Blake said after a few moments. "She said it far too cruelly, but... there is a human cost to defeating the enemy sometimes. I... left the White Fang because Adam and others were becoming too comfortable with paying that cost."

"So maybe it's better we think it sucks, I guess," Ilia grumbled, leaning her head on Kai's shoulder.

"... I think we just... need to try and live with it, guys," Kai said after a bit of thinking herself. "As much as I think about it, there was no way to take down a company like Hatanashi without paying that human cost. I mean, what could you do... reform it from the inside? It was a company that collected blackmail material and other, worse stuff as a principle. Not everyone who worked there was necessarily doing that, but... no matter how Hatanashi was removed, the result is the same."

"Tens of thousands of people on the curb," Ruby whispered, sighing out a cloud of smoke.

"... Yeah. Like I said... not much other choice." Kai took a deep breath, then knocked back her bourbon. "So we shouldn't feel too bad about it. ... Doesn't mean we should feel great about it."

"That's this job wrapped up at least," Weiss said. "And... well, not to look at it from the shallow end, but we are significantly closer to our goal after this. To going home."

"Yeah. So let's take a few days, decompress after this. I think we could all use it." Kai considered for a moment, then nudged Weiss. "Got something I need to go do."

"A goodbye you haven't said?" Weiss said with a small, slightly sad smile.

"Yeah. Plus, the job may be over... but until tomorrow night, she's still part of the crew. There's something a crew boss should do after any big job."

Malware sighed as she drew her speedercycle to a halt on the near side of the Corridor, swinging off of it. "Look, if this is about what I said, I-" She blinked as she found a beer being held out to her.

"These were the ones you liked, right?" Kai raised her eyebrows. "Only right for the boss to buy at least a round of drinks after the job."

Malware stared at her, then at the beer... then let out a very soft laugh as she accepted the slightly damp bottle. "Yes. Yes, this was the kind I liked." She used her carbon fiber thumb to flick off the cap, then reached up, gently unfastening the mask. When she lowered it, there were extra implant lines on her face, and her lips were a bit pale, but it was still the same rather cute face with a light dusting of freckles low on the nose that Kai remembered.

The Street Demon took a long drink of the beer, lowered it, looked at the label. "It's been awhile," she said, voice softer and gentler without the electronic filter. 

"Since the beer?" Kai said with a little grin.

"That. Other things." Malware shook her head a little. "Hey, um... could you tell the others, especially Ruby, that I really am sorry? I... definitely haven't been in a good place for a long time, and the rush of finally having that all done with..."

"I didn't figure anyone who became a Street Demon was actually in a  _ good _ place, no," Kai said gently. She started to urge the other woman on, then just kept her peace, waiting.

"... It's been a long time since anyone called me 'Mal' too," she finally whispered.

Kai blinked. "What?"

"Mallory Valence... that was my name. Before, y'know..." Mal grinned ruefully and flicked her fingers towards her neck. "See, my dad was a data analyst for HDS, just... crunching numbers, mostly, examining financials for signs of compromised employees or agents. Twenty-five years. I was fifteen when I started learning a bit of hacking. Didn't do anything to my dad's data, obviously, but... apparently just me learning was enough. They fired him."

"Damn," Kai muttered.

"Yeah. 'Damn'," Mal said with a bitter laugh. "'Cause, see, there was this clause in his contract. Anything he produced or created during his employment became property of the company on his termination, and..." She spread her hands, shrugged, then took another pull of beer.

"Fucking  _ hell _ ," the redhead hissed, resisting the urge to turn and smash her own beer on the pavement. "Seriously?!"

"Yup. Sized me up, decided it wasn't worth it to train me into an agent, sold me. Well... showed Etun what his evaluation skills were worth tonight, didn't I?" Mal said with another soft, bitter laugh. "Also blacklisted my parents, they couldn't get employed  _ anywhere _ after that, from the digging I did they both died on the street a few years later and about a month apart. All because I decided to learn a bit of deebee poking."

There was silence for a bit after that, as that sank in... the 'calamity' that Mal had been to herself and her family. Finally the cyborg drew a deep breath. "But... yeah... y'know... it's been a long time since I felt anything but anger and hate, but, y'know... somehow the moment you said 'Mal'... despite all the bioregulators... it still made my heart dance a little."

Kai regarded her for long moments... then sighed and shook her head, looking away. "... I didn't have to do the teegee flip, did I?"

"I mean, they really were expecting a human male..." Mal grinned ruefully before lowering her head a little, carbon fiber fingers clinking lightly against her beer bottle. "Buuut I could have flagged you 'nonconforming' on their profile. I... may have, a time or two when we were working together before, thought 'Why couldn't she be a guy?'"

"Dragon, Mal."

"I'm sorry. Honest I am. I just... I guess considering the massive self indulgence I was doing with this job, such a little convenient one felt justified." Mal shrugged her shoulders, her tail gradually curling around one of her ankles. "... But Kai... please... think about it."

"... Coming away with you, right?" the redhead asked in a whisper, turning to look back at her.

"You don't have to struggle to be a hero with me. We can leave the megasector, Makarzia, we could even go to another dimension, I could get my Guildcert again if you want. I'm not even saying you have to get swapped again, I... I could learn!" she added, almost wincing at how desperate that came out sounding. "... Please, Kai. Let's go find out who we are separate of all this. Not trying to be a hero, not trying to be a villain, let's just... go be  _ ourselves _ ! Together!"

* * *

"Here's where I say, 'It would be a lie to say I didn't think about it.'

"And it's true. I did. If nothing else, for Mal's sake. For my friend. For what she'd been through, for the sincerity of what she felt, she deserved to have me think it over. It would have been horrifically cruel to not at least think about it.

"So I stood there in the cold Makarzian winter night, and for a few seconds I thought about it. And there was some appeal, sure. Struggling to be a better person was hard, especially against the constant temptation of Makarzia. Always reminding myself I needed to go back and be a hero again. Throw myself into a battle way above my weight class struggling to do fuck-knows-what against an immortal foe of insurmountable power.

"For a few seconds."

* * *

"Weiss told you I'd pick her, didn't she?"

Mal closed her eyes, clearly already seeing Kai's decision in those words, lowering her head. "... Yes."

"She's right, Mal." Kai set the beer down and walked over to the other woman, resting both hands on her shoulders. "Not because you were so glad to take down Hatanashi... not even just because I love her. I... I like the me that I am when I'm with her, with them. Wherever I am, when I'm with them I already feel complete. This is myself. This is the me I want to be, I've already found it. ... I'm sorry."

"... You shouldn't be sorry for that," Mal whispered, shaking her head, pink tears sliding down her cheeks.

"Aw geez hon, look at this," Kai muttered, wiping them away. "Are you okay?"

"Ah... yeah, little brokenhearted, but the blood in the tears is just a side effect of surgery," the shorter woman murmured, grinning sheepishly and stepping back, fishing a cloth out of her pocket and wiping at her face. "Usually not a problem since I don't cry much, but, y'know... tonight's a special occasion."

"Mal, you can... you can still stay with us, if you wanted," Kai said, almost pleading a bit herself. "I may not be in love with you, but... I do love you. You're my friend, you're  _ our _ friend."

"... I know I am. Maybe if I'd acted like it all along I wouldn't have been such a bitch outside Hatanashi tonight." Mal took a deep breath, let it out in a rush. "I wasn't  _ wrong _ , but shit, anyone that makes Ruby cry deserves a kick in the ass."

"Maybe, but she'll forgive you, if she hasn't already," Kai assured her with a smile.

Mal shook her head slowly. "I can't."

"... Okay." Kai nodded. "So... back to the Demons?"

"I... don't think I'll do that either. I mean... I think I'll go back to say goodbye, but I think I'm done. Maybe I'll just have to accept that my journey to find myself will have to happen solo, huh?"

"Alright." Kai nodded again, slowly. "Are you... gonna be okay, doing that, though?"

"You mean will the Demons hurt me or jump me out? No... we're family. They'll understand. Most of us only have so much hate in us, and mine's... spent. It's just time for me to move on. From them... from Makarzia."

"This place is a little hard to get out of you... but I guess you've closed most of your accounts now, huh?" Kai smiled, reaching up a hand to briefly cup Mal's cheek. "... Gonna miss you, poss."

"Yeah," Mal whispered, closing her eyes and leaning her cheek against Kai's hand. "Gonna miss you too."

* * *

"It felt like it should have been snowing, for a goodbye like that.

"But it never snowed on Makarzia. Maybe that was why goodbyes always felt so shitty."

* * *

As Kai walked back into the Down Boy, she smiled at the sight of her crew gathered in front of her. "Hey, guys, s'up?"

"Finish saying goodbye to Malware?" Weiss asked gently.

Kai nodded, looking into Weiss's eyes, numerous things passing between them without a word being said, aloud or mentally. Then she added, "She wanted me to tell you all she was sorry about how she acted outside Hatanashi. It was the culmination of a lot of pain and suffering for her, but she didn't mean to hurt you, Ruby."

"I guess I know she didn't," Ruby said with a bob of the head, smiling just a little. "How about her, is she gonna be okay?"

"Yeah... she's leaving Makarzia to go and find what to do with her life now. Find out who she is without the hate. So I think she's gonna be okay." Kai grinned a little. "So why are you all waiting here for me?"

"Niobe needed the table, she said she's making a special tweak to it to celebrate completing the chain job," Phoenix said with a grin. "C'mon, take a look."

Curious, Kai moved through her crew and the club, walking over to the table... and smiling at the alteration to the design. The crowned lion was still the same, but now there was an arch over its head, circles bearing the emblems of the other six members encircling it almost like a halo, with the bottom of the circle covered by a banner bearing the words 'The Silver Ring'.

"Guess our job crew has a name now, huh?" Phoenix said cheerfully as Kai brushed her fingers over the freshly-redone clearcoat. 

"It's perfect."

Almost perfect.

She couldn't help but wonder, at just this moment, what it would have looked like with seven emblems around the lion's head instead of six.

Kai slid into her usual position in the booth with everyone, waiting for the round of near-traditional strawberry vodka shots to be delivered, and raised hers. "To doing the right thing, even when there's consequences," she said, pausing briefly before adding softly, "And to absent friends."


	17. The Spy Spire - Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Silver Ring decides to take a few nights off in the wake of the big chain job, and begins to plot how to spend it... only for Kai to be interrupted by a promise she'd already forgotten about. The rest of the team disperses to their own ends, with Weiss, Ruby, and Ilia deciding to have a game of "strip or truth" poker, Phoenix and Blake spending a night in together, and Pyrrha connecting with a new friend who doesn't understand why they're a friend.

"It was probably bad to rest on our laurels... getting a big score was no excuse to slack off and take it easy.

"But the chain job had been rough on everyone in various ways. Yang had stepped into a new version of her identity, and that wasn't something you just strolled into without needing to find time to understand what it meant to you. Take it from someone who'd been there. And we'd all had to make some squidgy moral choices... and learn some rough lessons.

"After all my talk about the others needing to grow up, I guess I'd had some growing up to do too. Because no matter how I turned it around in my head I couldn't see how taking down Hatanashi had been anything but a plus for the dimension at large... but fuck me if some part of me hadn't expected the credits to roll on a positive note.

"And I needed a little time to just sort of come to grips with everything that had happened with Mal, not just that. I mean, I'd had a pretty good idea by then that she had a thing for me, duh, it was just easier at the time to juke around it. I just hadn't thought... well. I dunno what the fuck I really thought. In the end the worst case scenario was avoided, we didn't go back to trying to kill each other after all was said and done.

"But I was still going to miss my friend.

"I had my other friends though, and we all needed some time to just... live. Especially Pyrrha, who had gone from getting back to full function to diving right into larcenous shit, though certainly she'd done that with zest and verve, while also finding time to start building a fucking legend for herself, heh.

"Nah, it was time for everyone to kick back, take it easy, live the frivolous life for a few days. With the amount of creds in our account now we could take a little chunk out and live it up (reasonably well) without compromising our overall goal.

"'Course I'd also forgotten about a little promise I made."

* * *

May 2, 2993, 19:42 (Local Makarzia time)

"Is that a  _ bird? _ " Ruby said in something approaching awe.

"What, where?" Weiss said, leaning to the side trying to follow Ruby's line of sight, the others craning up in the booth as well.

"Fuck me I think that might be an actual crow," Kai murmured, staring. Birds on Makarzia were extremely rare... they had to be kept out of the smog and the rain and since there weren't any native they had to be imported at great expense. Though on second thought, it might be some sort of droid after all... its eyes were yellow, and keen as they looked around.

It hadn't just wandered into the club by itself though, it was riding on someone's shoulder. Someone that Kai had to admit wasn't exactly hard on the eyes, as pleasing a creature as the crow was to look at already. She was somewhere between gother and nemo in style, her hair a dark, rich blue color draped in a fan over one side of her head, arcing just enough to clear her eye... her red eyes, Kai noted. Her shoulders, even the one the crow was on, were mostly bare save for the black straps of her bra, her tops both off-the-shoulder, a snug black fishnet one that stopped just above her bellybutton, and a black midriff-baring T-shirt that had a glowing purple emblem on it. Metal-studded belt, ripped black jeans riding low on her hips, dark makeup, very pretty picture overall.

'Uh-oh,' Kai thought as the crow looked at her, followed immediately by its owner looking at her, the goth girl making a beeline for the table.

"Kai Sterling," she said in an even voice as everyone settled and looked at her curiously.

"Yeaaaah?" Kai acknowledged, slowly taking a sip of her bourbon.

"You vowed that we would have 'fun' in whatever way suited me. Promise: collected."

Kai choked on bourbon, coughed it forward painfully as Ilia and Weiss thumped her on the back. " _ Soundwave _ ?!"

"Affirmative. And Laserbeak." Without the slightest movement of her head, Soundwave reached up to rub a knuckle under the crow's beak, the bird moving its feet lightly on her shoulder.

"I need like... a minute," Kai said hoarsely, putting a hand to her chest.

"Initiating countdown."

"It's an expression!"

"Uh, she's just startled, Soundwave," Ruby piped up, grinning a little sheepishly. "Whatever we were all picturing you choosing for your physical form I don't think any of us quite expected this. Hi, Laserbeak!" she added, waving a bit at the crow, who cocked its head curiously at her.

Soundwave tilted her head the other way. "Query: What did you expect?"

"... Not those," Kai murmured as she eyed the pair of fairly generous breasts the T-shirt was hugging, enough that Weiss smacked her on the arm.

"Form was selected by scanning attendants of music concerts and assembling traits from those that attracted the most attention from performers."

"You're very lifelike," Pyrrha said cheerfully... then smiled sheepishly as Soundwave frowned. "Ah, I'm sorry, that was probably rude."

"... Understanding. Statement was intended as compliment." Soundwave turned her head towards Kai Sterling. "We will go and have fun."

"Iiiii guess we will, yeah," Kai said wryly, tossing back the last of her bourbon and nudging Weiss. "You wanna come, babe?"

"Soundwave, what exactly is it you want to do for fun?" Weiss asked with a glance at the android, quirking a slender white brow.

"Music. You will take Soundwave to wherever there is music to listen to. Loud music. Preferably."

"Know what, I'm good, you two have fun," Weiss immediately declared, patting Kai on the shoulder.

"Thanks honey."

"So, that's right, you mentioned Adam was going to give bodies to your 'collective' too," Kai noted as they walked along the sidewalk towards the garage. "Laserbeak is one of those?"

"Affirmative."

"I guess I somehow assumed that you'd all pick humanoid bodies, but I guess artificial life is pretty diverse too. There are others?"

"Correct. Laserbeak is least likely to cause... issues... for organics in operation of music venues."

"Ooookaaaay well we'll just meet them later then if you like." Kai spent a few moments working the lock for the garage door... since it was, after all, designed by herself, it was a bit complicated since it was meant to thwart anyone with her own level of skill at larcenous shit. Once the door rolled up she pointed. "Mine's the silver one, hop in," she added as she thumbed the keyfob to open the doors.

Then she paused, noticing Soundwave had stopped and was staring at the Vulfens. "S'up?"

"... Consternation. Soundwave's current body built to emulate human sensations. Aesthetics of vehicles causing unfamiliar reactions."

The redhead processed that for a moment, then snrked softly. "Nah that's a totally normal reaction to these cars, you're cool."

"Hello again!"

Cybereyes whirred and blinked, Twitch turning a bit from where she'd been calibrating her blood synthesizer. "H-hello, P-Pyrrha, are you hurt?"

"No, I'm perfectly well, thank you," the redhead said in an easy tone, smiling. "But as it so happens, Kai has given us a few nights off, and everyone is largely taking it easy tonight. I thought I would come see if you were interested in doing anything."

"M-me?" Twitch pointed at herself with one finger. "Do... anything?"

"Yes, I was a little curious what you did for fun."

"... N-not much?" the cyborg admitted. "I... don't like to go out. B-besides, it's night... need to be here if someone n-needs patching up."

"Ah, yes, I suppose it is the 'busy time'," Pyrrha allowed with a nod. "Well! I have a book Blake recommended to me, would you mind if I sat in here to read?"

Twitch just regarded her in confusion for a few moments before finally nodding.

"Thank you." Pyrrha settled into one of the chairs against the wall, fishing a paperback out of one of her coat pockets and opening it up.

Twitch turned back to her calibrations, one of her cheeks jumping several times until she gave it a nudge with a finger. After several minutes she spoke up. "W-what's it about?"

"Hm? The book?" Pyrrha lifted her head. "Well, it appears to be an Earth fairy tale, about a princess who is a bit of a nonconformist, and who decides to choose her own path while 'playing the game' so that her parents cannot stop her. If it is any good, I am going to recommend it to Weiss," she added with a smile.

"... H-hunh."

"Would you perhaps like me to read it aloud? I do not mind."

"... S-sure."

Still smiling, Pyrrha lowered her eyes back to the book, flipping back a few pages before beginning. "'Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were highly respected and the number five was fashionable'..."

"How did I let you talk me into strip poker?" Weiss muttered as she picked up her hand of cards and eyed them dubiously.

"Nah-ah-ah, 'strip or  _ truth _ ' poker!" Ruby replied with a grin, silver eyes twinkling as she picked up her own hand. "When you lose the hand, the winner can ask you a question, and if you don't want to answer, then you have to take off a piece of clothing!"

"Yeah, so you're absolutely the one most likely to be left fully clothed by the end of this, I can't help but notice," Ilia noted dryly.

"Whaaaaat noooooo," Ruby answered, despite the positively smug grin never leaving her face.

In acknowledgement that their typical working outfits would have made for a very short game, and given Ruby an even more overwhelming advantage, all three had changed into vaguely similar casual clothes, all three in T-shirts, Ruby in Jeans, Weiss in shorts, and Ilia in cargo pants. Ruby and Weiss were sitting at opposite ends of Ruby's couch, with Ilia settled on the floor across the coffee table. On the table was a bowl of chips and bottles of the indistinct light fruit cider that the bar downstairs sold.

"C'mon, it's a team building exercise! Especially for us, Weiss, we don't spend nearly as much time together anymore!"

"We spend pretty much every night together, Ruby."

"Yeah but  _ working _ ! C'mooon!"

"Fiiiine, I already agreed so fine." Weiss shifted her cards around a bit, then slapped two down on the table. "Two."

"One," Ilia added, flopping down her card.

"And I'm taking threeeee..."

"You get that that's as good as telling us you have a pair, don't you?"

"You get that your endless need to correct me is just making it easier for me to win, don't you?"

Weiss opened and closed her mouth several times, then snatched up her new cards and glared at her hand, ears red.

"You do correct her a lot," Ilia noted as she briefly struggled to keep a sour look off of her face, realized there was no point, and pouted as she dropped her cards-face up on the table. "Junk."

"Pair!" Ruby called.

"Three of a kind." Weiss smirked as she laid her hand on the table, suddenly feeling better about the game now that she was first to win.

"Okay Weiss, that means you get to ask Ilia a question, and if she doesn't want to answer she has to take something off!"

"Oh fine. Ummm..." Weiss rolled her eyes, rather obviously mentally skimming over several subjects. "... What was the first naughty thing you ever read?"

"Ooo, that's a decent start!" Ruby chirped, clapping with her fingertips.

Ilia's specks went pink. "Um... I guess that was... 'Beauty's Beauty'," she admitted in a murmur, ducking her head.

"You too, huh?" Weiss said a bit sheepishly. At Ruby's curious look, Weiss gave her a droll grin. "It's a fairly tame but very popular bawdy novel, usually tucked in amidst the more standard bodice rippers. It's sort of infamous as a 'read this to see if you like girls' novel that's easy to get your hands on."

"Ohhhh. You read it too, huh Weiss?" Ruby asked as she gathered up the cards.

"I'll note I haven't lost a hand, but yes, I did. Iiiit didn't exactly help my turmoil a lot," the white-haired woman snorted.

"Still pretty nice, though, huh?" Ilia murmured as she scooped up her new cards.

"I'd have to read it again now that I'm in a better place."

There was a brief silence broken only by asking for cards, before hands were announced. This time it was Ruby's loss and Ilia's win, the Faunus woman regarding her friend for a few moments before asking, "What is the lewdest thing you actually know about?"

"Ummmmm..." Ruby squirmed a little in place, looking like she was seriously considering ditching a piece of clothing instead.

"Oh come on, that's giving you trouble?" Weiss scoffed, somehow expecting an answer of 'handholding'.

"Um, like, I guess..." Ruby brushed a fingertip against her cheek. "... Butt stuff?"

Weiss stared at her, mouth opening and closing, caught a little too perfectly between 'You know about butt stuff?!' and 'Butt stuff is the lewdest thing you know about?!'

Ilia snickered. "'Butt stuff'."

"I mean I'm not  _ that _ innocent y'know! I've seen... stuff! Online!"

"You have?" Weiss asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"I mean... you follow enough links promising cute furry pussies and you're gonna see some stuff, yeah."

"What are you even doing in there?" Blake called towards the bathroom as she carefully rolled up some of the lightly-dried leaves in some of the rolling papers Kai had bought her shortly after they'd all arrived.

In answer, the door opened, and her lover sauntered out, once more attired in the lawenoff uniform they'd used during the last phase of the previous job. "Well well well... looks like I've caught you red handed, you larcenous little harlot!"

Blake stared for a moment, then snorted heavily. "Seriously?"

"It's a serious offense, you know!" The blonde used the extended baton in one hand to nudge her hat up a little... then cleared her throat. "You, like, wanna finish before I go any further with this, or...?"

"I could finish a few things before you went any further with that," the golden-eyed woman said dryly, albeit continuing the roll. "And before you ask, I did this exactly as instructed, no more experiments until I've got the basics down, okay?"

"So that's a no on the roleplay?" Pouting just a little, the uniformed woman settled down to perch on the arm of the couch.

Blake regarded her for a moment, then laughed softly. "Tell you what, why don't we finish one of these each and then see how we feel about it?"

"Gasp, enticing an officer of the law! Or bribing, or... yeah okay works for me sure." She collapsed the baton and slipped it back into the holster on her belt. "So, ah... since we're not launching right into  _ that _ , can I ask you something?"

"Hm?"

"Have you been avoiding calling me 'Phoenix'?"

Blake blinked, looking over... then shrugged. "Maybe... a little. I was kind of wondering if it was gonna be something you moved on from after the high of the race faded."

"Kai just went right to using it as my new name though," Phoenix pointed out, frowning a little.

"Kai has a very malleable mind for things like that," Blake allowed as she passed the rolled smokeable to her lover and started another. "... You really want that to be your name from now on?"

"I like it. It feels sort of right, after a lot of the stuff I've been through. I feel like I've come into my own here, started finding new ways I can be valuable instead of just... beating stuff up. I mean, still fuckin' good at that," she added with a grin as she tucked the Leaf pillar between her lips. "Why not a new name to go with it?"

"I guess I just have concerns, considering all you've been through," Blake admitted. "And... other associations."

"You mean that it's a bird name?" Phoenix asked dryly.

"... A little that, yes."

"Yeah well Raven doesn't own being a Branwen,  _ or _ that naming tradition. If I wanna claim it for myself, frankly fuck her."

Blake searched the other woman's face for long moments, then finally smiled and raised her hands. "Okay, okay, you win." She gave the newly-rolled pillar a little twirl in her fingers before tucking it between her lips. "I'll try to start getting used to 'Phoenix', alright?"

"Thank you, I appreciate it," Phoenix said as she lit Blake's pillar before hers.

"Hm. ... Does that make us 'Team Roobip'?"

"Leeeet's just think of it like a nickname I'm really really dedicated to, okay?"

"But 'Roobip' is so cute!"

"You're either in a mood or this stuff is stronger than you thought."

"... Might be both.'

_ GHOST DATA - Void Walker _

"So, you like music, huh?"

"Affirmative."

They were sitting in the Glowworm, Kai having been a little delighted to find out that she apparently got ushered in on sight and was provided a table with no asking these days. In honor of the pulsing and glowing tabletop she'd ordered vodka instead of her usual bourbon to take advantage.

"What's music like on... ah...?"

"Cybertron." Soundwave looked at Kai, blinking red eyes slowly, Laserbeak doing it in perfect unison, either in intentional or unintentional creepiness. "It is like this but more dense. More precise. Mathematically beautiful."

"Huuuuh," Kai bobbed her head along to the intense synthwave that was the Glowworm's standard. "Probably wouldn't appreciate it, would I?"

"Your puny organic ears and brain would not be able to properly process its technological purity and elegance."

"Huh. ... Then how come you played me what sounded like thousand-year-old metal in the Dark?"

Soundwave pursed her lips. Laserbeak's head bobbed in a way that made it look very much like it was snickering. 

"Just saying, they were some sick antique beats," Kai said with a grin. "And obviously you at least  _ like _ organic music or you wouldn't have asked me for a tour of musical spots."

"Organic music..." Soundwave actually trailed off, gazing around the club, at the very organic bodies dancing without shame or reservation to the pounding synth. "Acceptable substitute. All Cybertronian music... pre-war."

Kai nodded slowly, deciding that definitely didn't need a quippy rejoinder. She'd seen it before on other worlds, where war had become a way of life... culture gradually vanished into the fight. People stopped doing anything but living the war. She could only imagine how that was for a race that had seen the war's beginning and actually augmented and changed their bodies to fight in that war.

'Did you have dreams of being a composer after the war?' Kai wondered as she watched those sharp, almost cold red eyes sweep back and forth over the club as if gathering intel rather than taking in the ambiance. 'A performer, a patron? Except then the war just kept going on, and on, and on, and "after" started to be a concept you thought about less and less?'

"Got a few more clubs we can hit after this," she spoke up, smiling. "And I can get some advice from friends too. We've got a long night ahead."

"Understood."

"So did you and Kai have sex when she was a guy?"

Weiss pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes at her partner, whose questions had gradually started getting far more bold and pointed as the game went on. She knew Ruby had a tendency to lock eyes on 'prey', and it seemed that she was starting to edge into that territory now. "No."

"Aw, c'mon, you're not gonna tell us any more than that?!"

"When did this turn into an interview?! I said 'no', that's the answer!"

"Well geez yeah, but it's kiiiind of an excuse to talk about stuff Weiss, y'know?"

Weiss pout-scowled at her, then looked to Ilia... who just shrugged, her t-shirt laying nearby on the floor, leaving her in a plain black sports bra up top.

"She's kind of got a point, it's not too fun  _ or _ learning anything about each other if you just give one-word answers."

"Oh for..." Weiss sighed. "Is this one of those unwritten rules about sleepover games I'd know if I had friends when I was a kid?"

"Yes," Ruby and Ilia said in unison.

"Ugh,  _ fine. _ " Weiss huffed, then said, "No, I did not have sex with Kai when she was in a male body. I... offered to, but she was respectful and declined."

"Huh." Ruby looked at Weiss curiously, scratching her neck a little. "... Huh."

"What's with a double 'huh'?!"

"Nah, just... wow, you really have  _ no _ interest in guys? H-hey, I'm not trying to start something!" Ruby blurted, holding up her hands as Weiss glowered.

"Ah the words of the extremely bi," Ilia murmured in vague amusement as she started shuffling the cards.

"... Yes, Ruby, I am a lesbian. The idea of having sex with a man made me very uncomfortable, moreso because of the problems I had... admitting I was gay." Weiss sighed heavily, then looked at Ilia. "You know, in the spirit of not holding to strict rules, and since you ganged up on me, I feel like I get to ask, would  _ you _ ?"

"Would I what?" Ilia blinked. "... Wait, would I have sex with Kai if she was a guy?"

"Yes." Weiss raised an eyebrow. "I don't think you need to bother denying you would with her as a woman, do you?"

"... Um." Ilia's specks turned pink. "I mean... not like,  _ now _ , but, um. ... I mean..." Ilia frowned a little. "Uh."

"Wow, you're having a way harder time answering than Weiss," Ruby noted.

"I mean... I never had any real issues with understanding I liked girls," Ilia admitted as she started dealing out a fresh hand. "All my negative feelings were directed other places during that time of my life, I guess. So I guess, like... the idea doesn't necessarily turn me on, really, but since I also don't have any bad feelings connected to it, I feel like I might  _ try _ it. Just once, you know, if it was... y'know."

"... I did offer," Weiss repeated after a moment as she shuffled her own cards around. "Right after we went to the Dark. Kai declined, though, so I wouldn't be uncomfortable."

"Aw, that's nice," Ruby chirped, grinning as she looked at her hand after getting more cards... then groaning and dropping her hand on the table. "Wah!"

"And that's three of a kind for me," Weiss chirped, smirking as she dropped her hand on the table.

"Pair of twos, Ruby loses," Ilia confirmed as she dropped her own hand.

"So, since you apparently thought Kai's guy form was just  _ that _ irresistible," Weiss said, smirking at her partner. "Did you have any lewd thoughts about my temporary  _ boyfriend _ , Ruby?"

Ruby blinked a few times.

Then she glanced away and started unbuttoning her jeans.

"That's basically admitting 'yes'! And it's even worse when you just start taking off your clothes!"

"My failure to answer cannot be taken as an admission of guilt! Ask any lawyer!" Ruby blurted back as she wiggled the jeans off her hips.

"I... feel pretty good, y'know," Phoenix commented airily, grinning.

"I do too, actually, apparently my tree is good stuff," Blake added in a pleasant tone, leaning her head back and letting her eyes sink closed, a smile on her lips.

"Mm. Only problem is I think I might be too relaxed to play Officer Naughty."

Blake let out a short laugh at that. "Were you really looking forward to it?"

"Honey I gotta admit I've had it in mind ever since we put the damn things on the other day."

Blake started laughing.

"Aw, c'mon!"

"I... I, okay, we can do it, just... just I'm gonna be like... hahahahaha!"

Unfortunately Phoenix was under the influence of exactly the same thing, and Blake's laughter was more than infectious in that state. They both wound up just sitting there and laughing for a good five minutes, the police cap hitting the floor as Phoenix ran her fingers through her hair.

"Shiiiit oh my god this stuff is  _ fun _ ," the blonde admitted after a moment, sitting up again. "Good job, Blakey."

"Thanky."

'Blakey' and 'Thanky' was enough to set them both off again. This time at some point in the laughing, Phoenix hauled Blake to her feet and then hefted her up over one shoulder, carrying her to the bed. They once again made themselves a nuisance to the downstairs neighbors by thumping down heavily, clothes coming off in wriggling, squirming, and more giggling.

"So roleplay another night, yeah?" Blake managed in a breathless voice as Phoenix leaned in to kiss her.

"Mmm, promise?" Smiling, the blonde sucked Blake's lower lip gently. 

"Mmhmmm... I'll dress up for it too, okay?" Blake murmured as her lover released her mouth, ducking her own head to kiss at her cheek.

"Oooo, now  _ that _ sounds fun." Phoenix ducked her head, kissing across Blake's throat, sucking gently at the side of the neck, reveling in the low thrum that started building deep in the other woman's throat. "Know what else sounds fun, though?"

"Hm?" Blake's eyes had drifted closed as she writhed gently beneath the other woman... and then yelped loudly as fingers started dancing up and down her sides, breathless laughter instantly starting again as she bucked and started writhing. "Hahahaha no no no stoppit Yang quit quit  **Phoenix** stoppit hahahahaha!"

_ Dance With the Dead - Near Dark _

"So can that body drink or what?"

Soundwave regarded Kai as if that was the stupidest question she had ever been asked in several million years of existing. "Why?"

"... Because," Kai said with a little laugh, putting her fingertips to her forehead as she leaned her head forward. They'd moved to a club that was on the slightly heavier, darker side of electronic music, with most of the people in it dressed in some variation of Soundwave's own clothing style, but there was still quite a bit of gyrating and bumping going on. "If you haven't noticed, organics don't just listen to music, we partake in other activities while we do."

"Frivolous."

"No, no it's not." Kai laughed a little again, albeit ruefully. "Look, listening to music is one thing, but mixing it together with other things is what makes it an  _ experience _ ."

Soundwave's lips pursed a bit, one of her hands rushing to brush along the feathers on Laserbeak's chest. "Quantify difference."

"Alright, so... first let's quantify the difference between being alive and living, yeah?" Kai grinned as she gave a little point. "And I'm not talking about organic life, let's call 'being alive' having the working functions of whatever happens for your continued existence."

"Acceptable. Continue."

"Yeah but  _ living _ is what you do that gets you out of bed or out of the recharging alcove or whatever in the afternoon, yeah?" Kai continued with a little flourish around the table. "It's all that stuff you do that isn't just keeping your physical form functioning! And when you put effort into  _ living _ , it becomes an  _ experience _ ! And living is just a long string of experiences with boring bullshit between 'em!"

Soundwave and Laserbeak tilted their heads in unison. "Conclusion: The more 'experiences' you have, the more 'living' you are doing."

"Yeah! You got it! Stuff like drinking, dancing, talking about it, all that shit is what you do that takes listening to music from just random bullshit that's happening around you to an  _ experience _ !"

Kai watched as Soundwave looked out onto the dance floor again, once more appraising. Without a word she rose and made her way out onto the dance floor, Laserbeak fluttering down to perch on the table instead. At first Kai's experienced eyes could pick out the precise recreations of what others had done, the results of a master of disguise just emulating the motions of the organics around them.

But bit by bit, more fluidity came into the motions. Shifts of the shoulders and hips in time to the music, red eyes sinking closed and just taking in the sound of the music, moving with it without thought for rationality or logic. Just dancing.

Just living.

Kai watched with a smile, then looked at Laserbeak. "You want anything to drink?" At the crow's light caw, she shrugged and pushed her glass over. "May as well try this."

"So if you could have one night of consequence-free sex with absolutely anyone in the group, who would it be?"

Ilia looked at Weiss for long moments. Then sighed and pulled off her bra, small breasts giving the slightest jiggle as they dropped free of it, and again as she shifted her shoulders to slide it off her ponytail.

"I honestly can't believe that one got you," Weiss scoffed a little, grinning broadly, and not a little pink-cheeked.

"You're getting annoyingly good at this."

"Just be glad Yang, ah, Phoenix isn't playing, she's waaaay more competitive than any of us," Ruby noted wryly, down to her bra and panties herself. "Though I guess she'd probably go easy on me."  _... Stop smirking, _ Ruby sent to Ilia, pursing her lips.

"Yeeees this activity might be a little much for a large group," Weiss said dryly as she accepted her fresh hand of cards. "At least there's no 'dare' component, then it might get particularly out of hand."

"Still think we oughtta try tha~t!"

"No, Ruby. Two."

"One."

"Dealer takes two. I mean, we could always just have a 'never speak of it again' agreement about the night," Ilia said cheerfully. "I hear that works for some people."

_ I will  _ **_spank_ ** _ you. _

_ Promises promises. _

"Mmmm," Weiss said in a dismissive but still not entirely disinterested way, eyeing her cards before laying them down. "Pair of fives."

"Pair of nines!" Ruby chirped.

"Ironically enough for this room, a straight," Ilia chuckled, laying out her cards. "Alright, Weiss, have you ever had a sexy fantasy about Ruby?"

Weiss gave Ilia the biggest 'traitor' look of the game, then snuck a look aside at Ruby, who was staring at her with great interest. She honestly considered discarding her t-shirt, then finally sighed. Unwritten rules of sleepover games. "Oh  _ fine _ . Yes, of course I did. I felt extra bad about them  _ considering _ , but I did, alright?"

"Ohhhh right the age thing," Ruby murmured, Ilia ducking her head sheepishly as she realized too.

"I mean lez be honest," Weiss said, a bit of drollness coming back into her voice as she shuffled the cards while the other two groaned at the Yang-level pun. "I was living with a bunch of other  _ remarkably _ attractive women, it was going to happen. The answer would pretty much be the same whoever you asked about at Beacon."

"Missed opportunities," Ruby teased, silver eyes sparkling as she picked up her fresh hand.

"I mean you still could," Ilia noted almost absently as she eyed her hand thoughtfully.

"I think we've fairly well established that I am not interested in cheating on Kai."

"It's not cheating if she's there too."

Both Weiss and Ruby blinked. "What?"

"Have neither of you noticed that Blake and Yang have started inviting other people over sometimes?" Ilia asked, looking up and raising her eyebrows.

"Um." Ruby blinked. "Wait, really? I... usually have my headphones on 'cause Blake's sort of loud when she gets going..."

"... Kai and I are usually making our own noise..." Weiss admitted, blushing again.

"Thus more headphones."

Ilia snickered. "They've been having threesomes since not long after Ya-, right right, Phoenix got her tattoo."

"Huh. I mean I remember Blake kissing Kyoko but I thought that was just a 'heat of the moment' thing," Weiss admitted, resting her half-forgotten cards against her forearm.

"Dunno, but they're definitely having three's company action going on in there." Ilia squirmed a bit in place, making a show of paying attention to her cards. "So, you know, if you were going to do it with Ruby, basically all you need to do is have Kai be cool with it and like, there. I guess. Or whatever."

Very slowly, Weiss and Ruby's heads turned towards each other, something halfway between shock and appraisal on their faces.

Then they whipped their heads back forward. "Who needs cards?" Weiss said in a slightly higher voice than before.

"I d-don't understand."

"Hm?" Pyrrha lifted her head, then glanced back down at the book. "Well, I'm really not sure why wizards melt in soapy water with lemon either, but that does seem to be as they say 'a thing' in this book."

"N-no." Twitch sighed, turning from finishing up a batch of artificial blood to face Pyrrha. "W-why all of you t-try so hard to be n-nice to me."

The redhead blinked a few times. "Why wouldn't we?"

"It's j-just my j-job to take care of y-you. I m-mean, fix you," Twitch murmured, turning her head away.

Pyrrha smiled gently, tucking a bookmark into the paperback and set it aside. "Yes, it's your job to fix us," she agreed as she stood up and moved over to the heavily augmented woman. "But it's not your job to take care of us, and you do that too. Does it bother you, that we try to show you we care?"

"I d-don't... know," Twitch muttered, lowering her head a little.

"... People haven't done that for you very much, have they?" Pyrrha asked. At Twitch's silence, she smiled again. "That is as good a reason as any. You know, it is alright if you would like us to call you something other than 'Twitch'. Or if you want to tell us that we are bothering you. You do not have to be afraid."

"... I'm... always... afraid..." Twitch whispered.

"... You do not have to be," Pyrrha said gently, resting a hand on the other woman's shoulder. "Especially when I am here. I will not let anyone hurt you. Neither would any of us in the Silver Ring. Or Niobe, or the others. You are safe. You do not have to be afraid all the time."

Twitch turned her head slowly back and forth, almost as if looking for something convenient to be afraid of so she could deny it. Finally, though, she simply said, "T-... Twitch is f-fine."

"Alright." Pyrrha smiled. "Is it alright, then, to continue to hug you? And praise you?"

"... Y-yes."

"Very well. Shall I continue reading?"

"... Yes p-please."

_ Bryce Fox - Horns _

"Observation: Kai Sterling does not seem to be having a pleasant 'experience'."

"Eh. Let's just say this song reminds me of recent events in a way that's not exactly comforting," Kai replied with a shake of the head, tapping ash off of her cigarette into an ashtray. The club they'd found now featured actual live acts with singing, and they'd decided to settle in for awhile. The current song about a seductress with horns luring the singer to a life with sin was slightly on the nose for her. "But... sometimes that's how it be."

"Grammar inexcusable. Sentiment... understandable." Soundwave copied Kai's motion of tapping ash off her cigarette almost exactly. The redhead wasn't sure the android had actually inhaled, but that wasn't really the point anyway.

"Guess you've got people you miss too," Kai prompted.

"Affirmative." Soundwave hesitated briefly before noting, "However. Individuals would also likely ruin... 'experience' with ulterior motives. Soundwave experiences an irrational feeling of both dislike of their absence and relief at same."

"Yeah. Yeah, kind of get that too." Kai sat and listened to the music somewhat pensively for a minute... before her eyes wandered again.

"Query: Something troubles you?"

"I'm sorry, that's just distracting as hell," Kai muttered, eyeing the lit cigarette in Laserbeak's beak.

"Suggestion: Deal with it."

"Favorite part of the body."

"Lips," Ilia answered after only the very briefest hesitation.

"Huh, really?" Ruby considered that one for a moment.

"Yup. Don't know why. Lips just totally do it for me. About splooshed that time everyone got all done up at the makeup place, had to stare at Reese until I think she wondered what the fuck was up," Ilia scoffed as she collected the cards.

"Hm. I think it's butts for me," Weiss mused aloud, the rules of the game long since having devolved into an oversharing session with all three of them sitting around in their panties. "Kai has an amazing butt."

"It's pretty nice," Ruby allowed. "Jaune has a good butt!"

"Look at Jaune's butt often?" Ilia teased as she dealt out cards.

"I mean, I  _ notice _ ," Ruby huffed, shrugging. "Ren's is nicer but I feel bad looking at his 'cause like, it's Nora's." She paused, considered. "Can I look at Jaune's still you think, or is it Pyrrha's?"

"I'm... not sure," Weiss admitted, frowning. "From things she's said I don't think she intends to jump right back into anything."

"I mean you guys get she might decide to not go back with us at all, right?" Ilia noted as she dealt herself two more cards. "It's not her Remnant and she doesn't have to fight for it."

"I know. I mean, she doesn't have to, and... ... I know," Ruby murmured quietly. "... I just don't care whether she's 'my' Pyrrha or not, she's still Pyrrha. ... Just," she added, blushing a little.

"A  _ lot _ more confident?" Weiss noted wryly.

"I mean,  _ yeah _ ! She's just so, like... impulsive and direct, it's wild!"

"Guess 'dying' will do that to you," Ilia mused. "Or some people. I kinda got more skittish after it."

Weiss and Ruby both blinked, exchanged a glance, and looked at her. "What do you mean, you died?" Weiss asked slowly.

"I mean, I got blown up, right?" Ilia lifted her head, looked back and forth. "... Okay, say you hadn't been prepped for Makarzia at all. But you were doing whatever, some Dust exploded near you, and all of a sudden bam, you drop into the street, you have that feeling of everything being sized wrong and messed up, people are chattering, the neon's glowing, what'd be your first thought?"

At the two exchanging another glance, Ilia snorted. "Right, I thought I was in Hell. Aaaand I know I'm not anymore, but I'm still not 100% certain I didn't die. And I mean... as far as my Remnant is concerned, I basically did, so..."

"Ilia..." Ruby looked at her with concern. "I mean... do you think about that a lot?"

"Not really anymore. I used to basically every night, but... not really anymore. I mostly think about you guys. ... Or I try not to in some cases," she added dryly, glancing at Weiss.

"The walls are  _ thin _ , okay?!"

"Do you ever think about after?"

"Mm." Blake looked up at the ceiling, stroking her hand over Phoenix's hair, letting her fingers wander through it. "After we get back to Remnant?"

"After Salem."

"That's... a hard one," the golden-eyed woman admitted. "She's such a big foe, and our approach to fighting her is so... vague."

"So, okay, let's imagine that Ruby walks up to her and laser-eyes her into dust the second we get to Atlas," Phoenix suggested, scooting around a bit to slide her left arm under her lover's head. "Then what?"

"Mm. ... Hmmm..." Blake looked at the ceiling, turning that over in her head. "I guess... go back to school, maybe? Finish out getting our licenses?"

"Okay. Fair. After?"

"Well you're full of questions tonight," Blake scoffed gently.

"I do think," Phoenix said wryly. "This is called 'planning our future' at this point, babe."

"... I guess you're right." Blake nodded slowly, resting her head back on the blonde's bicep. "Hm. I... well. ... I guess we need to admit to ourselves that we have a choice of worlds to make at this point, hm?"

"Yeah, guess so. Remnant or Makarzia." Phoenix was silent for awhile, before saying, "I always saw myself moving back to Patch someday. I guess I kind of still do. But also at this point it almost feels... restrictive? just going back to Remnant and staying forever."

"You're right, it sort of does. I definitely don't want to move an entire dimension away from my parents, when I was finally able to reconnect with them, but at the same time..."

"Hm. ... Maybe we should try out being mercs for awhile?" Phoenix suggested, glancing over.

Blake blinked. "You mean like Kai? Join the Guild?"

"I think Kai wants us to get certified anyway, just in case something like this happens again, so maybe we shouldn't let it just be a technicality. I mean... it's basically just like being a further-roaming Huntress in the end, right?"

"I guess that's true," Blake allowed slowly. "More... varied... but there's no reason we couldn't take jobs that let us help people and get paid for it, just like a Huntress. And since Makarzia is a 'free' destination according to Kai, we could come back and visit whenever we wanted."

"So you could see your trees?" The blonde glanced over just a little ruefully at the corner, where the small tree had grown into a bit of a bush and put several crawling vines up racks on the walls, as well as other cuttings of it growing in new pots, the vines starting to take on different shades of leaf color.

"I haaaave this feeling I might get into trouble bringing those back to Remnant with me, yes," Blake said dryly.

"You're gonna anyway, aren't you?"

"... Probably."

_ Royal Deluxe - Bad _

"Y'know now it's your turn to look like this one's hitting a little close to home," Kai noted at Soundwave's positively pensive expression.

"This concept of embracing villainy. You understand?" Soundwave asked in return, red eyes meeting red eyes.

"... Yeah. Yeah, it ain't just villainy." Kai stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray, pausing to grin a bit as Laserbeak hopped down and deposited its burned-out cigarette in the tray as well. She reached out to stroke two fingertips over the crow's head. "I embraced being 'nobody'... a no-good, no-account street punk. You have enough people tell you you're shit... so what, that's why 'Decepticons'?"

Soundwave nodded slowly, before completing the trio of stubbing out her cigarette. "Megatron suggested embracing of deprecating name for faction. Acknowledgement of 'ends justify the means'."

"And what do you think of that?"

"Soundwave thinks that Soundwave is here, and Megatron is nowhere in sight." The android raised her eyebrows slightly. "Soundwave is no longer a necessary means to Megatron's ends. Therefore Soundwave is no longer relevant. If Soundwave is no longer relevant to struggle... perhaps struggle is no longer relevant to Soundwave."

"Guess it's time to decide who you are when you're not playing the villain," Kai said with a slightly wan smile.

"Query: How did Kai Sterling accomplish no longer feeling 'no-account'?"

"Well. Still working on that one. But I'm not sure my method quite works for you, you don't strike me as the romantic type, but I guess you never know," Kai answered with a warmer grin and a shrug. 

"Intimate companionship assists in feelings of self-worth?"

"I mean... you stuck by Megatron for how long? Seems like in that time, at least a couple of opportunities would have come along to depose him and give someone else a try."

Very, very faintly, Soundwave's eyes rolled. "Numerous."

"So, maybe there was something to be said for you sticking more by  _ him _ than the cause, and  _ maybe _ a little of the reason you're feeling lost right now is that you're wondering why he apparently didn't feel the same about you."

Soundwave's head lowered just slightly, red eyes shifting off to the side.

"Y'know, though, without knowing more about how you wound up wrecked and found by the Freedroids, I don't think we can say he didn't go looking for you. Maybe he thought you were destroyed entirely, maybe he mourned. Maybe he's still looking, you never know. But, either way, you can't let him determine who you are forever." Kai bobbed her head to the side as she pulled out and lit up another cigarette. "But it  _ is _ okay to decide who helps define you."

"Definition via group is acceptable to you?"

"I mean, sort of." Kai rolled her shoulders. "I told someone recently that I like who I am more when I'm with my friends from Remnant. I'm more thoughtful, I consider the consequences of my actions a bit more. I'm a better person because I try to measure up to who they are. And I mean you've already got that opportunity at least a little... Adam's a thoughtful guy, who fights for freedom for his people, but he refuses to embrace the idea of being the villain."

Soundwave nodded slowly. "... 'Freedroids'... is more pleasing appellation than 'Decepticons'."

"Maybe think of it this way... for fuck-knows-how-long, you measured yourself against being who you thought Megatron needed you to be." Kai grinned and blew a plume of smoke around her. "If he ever shows up, maybe he should have to think of measuring himself against who you are then."

Sounwave regarded her for long moments... then actually snorted. "Unlikely."

"Well, tell him to fuck off if he's back on his bullshit then," the redhead advised airily.

She couldn't help but notice that Soundwave still looked faintly troubled though.

Niobe scowled as someone just slid pretty-as-they-pleased into her personal throne in the club beside her. For a split second she considered quite literally taking their head off for the fucking audacity, but she swallowed that and instead took a look at just how would have the ball-balls.

Dark caramel skin, short blonde hair elegantly coiffed, glasses, long white coat over black formal shirt and white tie, white pants, expensive-looking shoes. She looked like a slightly stylish daytimer... except her gaze and manner were absolutely unruffled as she settled in and took a look around and then at Niobe, as if she'd seen everything and nothing about the club even blipped.

Ah.

"Well to what do I owe the pleasure?" Niobe asked as she started a new cigarette. "Get you anything, my benevolent overlord?"

"I think we both know no one is your overlord, Niobe," the Guild observer said with something dangerously close to a smile, pink eyes amused.

"I know that, I'm not always sure you guys know that." Niobe took a few draws on her cigarette, then eyed the other woman. "But seriously, what's with you showing yourself and plopping down?"

"You know, not everything is a sinister ploy for dominance, Niobe. We're not your enemies... and we're not Kai's either."

"Mm. You know, there's a saying we mercs have, to keep us grounded whenever we start getting tempted to think maybe the Guild gives a shit about us... 'It's just business'," the gene soldier said evenly, eyeing the ember of her cig for a moment before looking over at the blonde woman. "But I hear you have a different version of that phrase in your own ranks."

One corner of the observer's mouth quirked up a bit on one side. "'It's just government.'"

"Yeah. Having been involved in a few of those in my time, forgive my innate distrust."

"It's understandable. But unlike most governments, we don't need to constantly be grasping for power. We already have all the power, Niobe, any attempt to get more would be bad for business. Certainly there's occasionally someone that comes up that wants more, but we tend to weed those out... fairly quickly."

"Uh-huh." Niobe pulled on her cig, eyes fixed on the observer. "So why's Kai getting shit about her cert?"

"You know that slaves that get freed the 'wrong' way always get extra scrutiny... it's just the nature of the deal," the observer said with a shrug, seeming unbothered by the rage that briefly flared in Niobe's eyes. "But that wouldn't have presented too much of a problem on its own. The reason she's being singled out for extra scrutiny... and why you were told she is... has very little to do with that. Or her."

Niobe narrowed her eyes, brow furrowing a little... then her scowl deepened. "Her friends?"

"The Guild is  _ very _ interested in these Huntresses, Niobe. We want more of them to join."

"... Stronger mercs mean people coming to the Guild with even more jobs. Means more business, means more fees, people using the facilities more," Niobe muttered, the observer's grin only growing.

"They're force multipliers. Not only are they strong and capable in their own right, this 'Awakening' they do has a lot of potential."

"They don't do it frivolously, y'know. It's important to them... a bond that can never be broken," Niobe said slowly. "You're not gonna see it spreading out into the rest of the Guild like any other commodity."

"Really? Hm. Well, I'll tell you what. Let's make a bet."

"You wanna gamble with me?" Niobe snorted. "That feels like a bad bet."

"Sometimes the bad ones are the most fun." At the other woman's probing glare, the observer's eyes twinkled. "I used to be a merc too, you know. So let's say... seven."

"Seven what?"

"That's how many people are in Kai's crew, yes? Let's say that before their goal back on Remnant 4482 is resolved one way or another, that seven non-Remnant individuals are Awakened. Or more. If it's less, I'll fast track that application you've put in for an autonomous club license on the Guildhall."

Niobe huffed, rolling her eyes. "Bitch. And if it's seven or more?"

"You'll owe me a favor. Me, personally." The observer smiled. "You may think we have a lot of power... but you'd be surprised how much of that power comes from connections and owed favors, just like any average merc. Just a fun little bet."

"Yeah. Sure it is." 

Niobe considered though. Despite it, owing a Guild operative a favor wasn't nearly as awful as it might seem, and in some ways was only slightly less appealing than them owing you a favor. The Guild couldn't really compel anyone to work for free, so if the observer ever needed her for a job, she'd get paid for it. Not really as big an issue for her now that she was Queen of Tailtown, but... 

... there was always the thrill of it.

"Fine. Bet," Niobe agreed, proffering a hand.

"Good. We'll even be fair and start it from this moment on," the observer said with another twinkle in those pink eyes, shaking Niobe's hand.

"Ah-huh."

"Let's wrap it up with the big question." Weiss slid her cards together and dropped them on the table without more than a glance over them. "We go back to Remnant. We defeat Salem. The day is saved. Where do you see yourself in ten years?"

Ilia scoffed lightly. "Is this a sleepover game or a job interview?"

"No, I'm serious. You don't have to get super exacting, but it's ten years in the future, what are the things that you want to have by then?" Weiss urged.

"Hmmmm... y'knoooow," Ruby said, sitting back. "I think in ten years I just wanna be... hanging out."

Weiss snorted. "What, seriously?"

"Yeah! I think I just wanna do Huntress missions, or maybe sometimes jobs like with the Guild, but otherwise I just sorta wanna be... hanging around in Patch, being with my dad. Able to pick up and go see my friends whenever I want, take jobs whenever I want, just kinda, y'know... day to day." Ruby paused briefly, then shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe it's 'cause ever since the whole... learning how important my silver eyes are, and Salem and all that, it's felt like I've had this destiny I've gotta charge towards. ... Well, even before that, I guess I was charging towards being a Huntress. I think I'd kinda like to... take it day by day."

"I suppose that's understandable," Weiss said slowly after a moment.

"So what about you, since you asked?" Ilia prompted.

"Mm. I used to imagine myself running the SDC, I guess. Even after I started changing my outlook, I had a lot of changes I wanted to make,  _ obviously _ ," the white-haired woman added drolly. "But I guess that isn't going to happen. I don't know, I kind of think... well, I wouldn't mind coming back here. Living...  _ some _ version of this life. Maybe Kai doing things that are a  _ little _ safer, for Niobe. A bigger apartment... with multiple bedrooms."

"Ohhh, roommates," Ruby said knowingly, bobbing her head... then blinking as Weiss gave her a flat look. "What?"

"I think she's saying she wants kids, Ruby," Ilia noted with a soft snicker.

"Ohhhhh. Huh. Really? You?" Ruby blinked a few times, then made a sheepish look at a half-angry, half-hurt look on Weiss's face. "Sorry! Sorry, I didn't mean it like that, just you never seemed like you'd be interested in that!"

"Well. I am. I... want to have children so I can give them the love and guidance that I missed out on. Kai too," Weiss admitted after a second. "I'm not sure how well this life would fit in with that so I probably need to do some more thinking, or... talking with Kai, when the time is right, but I would like to look into having children. Preferably not long after I'm twenty, so that I still have plenty of energy to devote to them as well as having a rest of my life."

"That makes sense, I guess," Ruby added, nodding. "My mom wasn't a lot older than that when she had me. Soooo what about you, Ilia? What do you want to for sure have by ten years from now?"

"Mm." Ilia considered, then sighed. "I basically just want to be in a committed relationship by then, I guess. I wanna be in love. ... I hope it doesn't take ten years to find it," she added rather ruefully.

"You're super lovable though!" Ruby chirped, smiling brightly. "I mean, I don't get why you don't have people throwing themselves all over you!"

"Probably because I mostly hang out with you guys all the time?" Ilia said wryly. "And the other people I talk to around here aren't really the 'longterm relationship' sorts."

"Mm. Well, what would you like in someone, do you think?" Weiss asked curiously.

"I dunno..." Ilia mused on it a little. "Dark... intense... driven... maybe even a little brooding..."

"Soooo Blake," Weiss said with a snort.

"... I mean not  _ exactly _ Blake," the Faunus girl muttered, poking her tongue out. "But someone kinda like... Blake- _ like _ ." Ilia considered a bit more, then snorted. "Maybe someone short so I wouldn't have to lean up on tiptoe to kiss 'em."

"Huuup," the other two answered, raising their bottles.

Conversation had gradually turned back into kissing and petting, which had slowly turned into Blake moaning lowly into Phoenix's mouth as slick golden fingers stroked inside her.

Phoenix broke the kiss to let it trail down Blake's cheek, up to one of her human ears, murmuring, "Love you so much," into it as she turned on the lowest vibration setting on her fingers.

"Oh fuuuuck," Blake groaned softly, her arms tightening around the blonde and drawing her closer, kissing and lipping half-thoughtlessly at one of her own ears. "Oh god I love you so much, oh fuck..."

"Mmm, yeah?" Phoenix lifted her head, looking down at her lover with warm purple eyes, slowly turning her hand and turning her strokes into gently beckoning motions. "How much do you love me?" she prompted teasingly, expecting their now standard answers.

"Mmmnnn... ah... I... I..." Blake's breathing shuddered, eyes closing and back arching just briefly before she moaned out, "I want your  _ babies _ !"

Phoenix froze... well, everything but her fingers still buzzing gently away inside Blake's quivering, grasping pussy. XiaoLong.exe crashed briefly, leaving her just propped up over the other woman motionless, until Blake noticed and opened her eyes, moaning out "Honey? What did I sa-"

And then the blonde's mouth was covering hers, kissing her intensely, tongue diving into her mouth. She arched her body down against Blake's, fingers slipping out, instead gathering her up close, holding her as tight as she could as she started to rock her body. Blake gasped out as Phoenix's strong thigh started rubbing and grinding her sex and clit rhythmically, feeling the blonde's own sex leaving a growing pool of wetness atop her own thigh.

"Yes, yes, have my babies, have my babies, fucking yes have my babies," Phoenix breathed ardently as she briefly broke the kiss, just so she could meet her lover's eyes, eyes the color of each other's souls locking gazes before the kiss was resumed even more intensely than before.

They might not be set up for making babies, but that wasn't going to dull a damn thing at the moment.

Kai paused briefly in stepping off the elevator, snorting a little at the sounds of passion coming from next door to her own apartment. 'Damn, they stole a march on us, now I'm gonna hafta put in overtime over the next few days to catch up.' She walked up to the door and knocked. "Snowbird, I've got company, you decent?"

"NO!" blurted back three voices in unison.

The redhead blinked, processing Ruby and Ilia's voices. 'Okaaaay, now there's a story I want to hear.'

A few seconds later the door peeked open a bit, blue eyes peering out, before Weiss exhaled and pulled the door open, glancing over her shoulder. "It's just Soundwave."

"Soundwave feels heartily welcomed," the android noted flatly.

"No, I mean, just... ... nevermind, sorry," Weiss said, stepping back and gesturing the two inside. Kai quirked an eyebrow at the sight of Ruby and Ilia in just shirts and panties, what looked a lot like their bras resting nearby. "Did you two finish up your music club crawl?"

"Yeah, seemed like it was starting to get early. Thooooough, I was kind of wondering," the red-eyed woman said with a grin as she and Soundwave came in, Ruby nudging some clothing off of the couch to make room for both of them. "If we could finish it off with something a bit more... sedate."

"Well you're not going to get a lot of that from Ruby's choice in music, I don't know what Ilia lis-" The white-haired woman blinked, then held up a hand. "Wait wait wait, you don't mean-"

"Ah c'mon hon, Soundwave really saved our asses down in the Dark," Kai urged, putting her hands together. "We've been listening to synth and metal and city house all night, let's cap it off with something pretty!"

"Soundwave admits to being fascinated by the unique circumstances," the android woman chimed in.

Weiss stared at them both, expression flat. "You want me to sing. With no notice. In this apartment. And instead of music, I have that," she added, curling a hand to angle a finger towards the wall, just as Phoenix and Blake both gave a rather exultant cry.

"I mean it's not the shower, but give it a try? For me?"

"C'mon, Weiss, give it a shot!" Ruby urged, silver eyes twinkling.

"I don't think I've ever heard the illustrious Weiss Schnee perform live either," Ilia added, grinning. "C'mon, give us something."

"... Oh, alright," Weiss said with a sigh. "There's something I've been working on a little bit... having to do with how I felt as I finally escaped from Atlas, before everything went upside-down on that too," she added rather wryly. "I've only worked on it a little, and this obviously isn't the accompaniment I had in mind, but..."

"This song," Soundwave interjected. "It is about freedom?"

"Well... yes, pretty much," the white-haired woman answered with a blink.

"... Proceed." Soundwave nodded once.

"Alllright." Shaking her head a bit wryly, Weiss cleared her throat, waited a moment, and seemed satisfied that the noise from next door had died down a bit. "...  T _ he dawn breaks through the trees _

_ It brings me to my knees _

_ Pink and purple, golden beams _

_ Such light I've never seen _

_ The gloom lifts its hold on me _

_ Freedom, is this freedom? _

_ The birds are singing in the trees _

_ Listen, I can hear them _

_ Beyond the trees I glimpse the sea _

_ It calls me, oh it calls me _

_ The world is waiting there for me _

_ If only, if only _ "

Weiss trailed off after the third verse, then grinned sheepishly. "Unfortunately the only bird waiting for me in Anima was Raven, so..."

"It's really nice," Ilia said quietly, smiling.

"Yeah, Weiss, that could be one of your best yet," Ruby said with an even warmer smile.

"Absolutely amazing, Snowbird," Kai added, rising to her feet and moving over to wrap her arms around her lover.

Soundwave said nothing as she rose to her feet again, simply regarding Weiss as she and Kai parted. After a long moment, she nodded once. "Soundwave voices appreciation of your indulgence." Then she turned and walked to the door, apparently feeling those were fitting words of parting.

"... Hm, tough crowd," Weiss said wryly.

"Eh, who knows what she's thinking," Kai scoffed gently. "I'm sure she liked it, or she wouldn't have been shy about saying otherwise, Snowbird. But Soundwave's kinda... not affected by this stuff as deeply. I guess."

In the hall outside, Soundwave stopped before the elevator, finger raised but not quite touching the button. Instead her hands raised, coming up to the front of her shirt, pulling it out so she could look down at the purple symbol etched on it. Purple like the breaking dawn...

'One day! A new dawn will break over Cybertron! A dawn that will see freedom for all!'

When was the last time she had heard him mention that dawn? When had there been any beams other than those of death and destruction striking down enemy and ally? Birds, trees, seas... all of it just resources to power the war.

Silently, she drew the shirt off and let it fall to the floor, the Decepticon symbol laying crumpled face-up, red eyes not looking at it again as she summoned the elevator and stepped inside.

Blake strolled into the hall, freshly-dressed and stretching. "Did you actually hear Weiss singing?"

"Pretty sure, yeah," Phoenix replied as she followed her lover out. "May as well go ask what's up, maybe they're doing something fun. ... Hm? Well looks like someone had fun at least," the blonde added drolly as she noticed the shirt laying in front of the elevator, walking over to pick it up.

"Heh, clothing in the halls, gonna be one of those nights, hm?"

"Huh. Actually, isn't this Soundwave's? Pretty sure I saw her wearing it when she came in," Phoenix noted, holding up the shirt.

"I think you're right, that purple symbol's kind of distinctive. She didn't seem the type."

"Eh. I'll put this in our apartment then, in case she comes back for it."

Blake watched her lover head back into their apartment, briefly considering the power of symbols that could mean something to you one day, and feel like they burned to the touch the next.

If it was anything like that... she doubted Soundwave would ever mention the shirt again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Weiss sings is "The Dawn" by Karliene.


	18. The Duel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai checks the crew's account and realizes that they've made enough money to return to Remnant... but that means that before she leaves Makarzia, she has to keep a very important date with Cyanide.
> 
> The two of them will square off to decide who will walk away to become a Master of the sword... and who will be left laying in a puddle of their own blood.

July 11, 2993, 15:42 (Local Makarzia time)

Kai looked at the amount in the account displayed on her comm screen. It was, undeniably, more than they needed.

She'd let herself delay past getting the exact amount, wanting to make sure they had a buffer for other expenses that might crop up along the way or after getting to the Guildhall. It wasn't  _ really _ about not wanting to leave, though there was a little of that. Just... she wasn't sure what it would be like to take her crew back to Remnant now.

Where they wouldn't be her crew anymore. 

... Still. No point putting it off. Although, there was one thing she was going to have to tell them about first.

"That's  _ ludicrous _ !"

"I've gotta admit, I'm not really following along on this one either, Kai," Phoenix said with a frown, arms folded over her chest as she leaned back on the wall of the apartment. "I mean, yeah, I get a fight to the death with a Street Demon sure, but why not like... seven on one?"

"Look, guys, I get it," Kai muttered, holding up her hands. "I probably should have told you before now, but I  _ knew _ how it sounded. It would've sounded absolutely stupid to me too, until it happened."

"So you're saying this is some kind of..." Pyrrha trailed off, her jaw working a little as she said the last word with some distaste. "Destiny?"

"I don't know if that's even the right word," Kai answered with a sigh, flopping back against the couch and rubbing her face with both hands. "It's more like... I think  _ if _ Cyanide and I ever met, then we'd need to fight to determine which of us was going to move on to working towards being a master of the sword. And we happened to meet that night, so... now we have to."

"So you're saying you have to do this?" Weiss asked flatly.

Kai hesitated... then shook her head. "No. I could just walk away if I wanted to. ... I  _ want _ to do this," she added softly. "I never even knew I gave a shit about being a swordmaster until I realized it was a real thing, that this...  _ connection _ with another swordfighter was a real thing." She huffed. "Ico's mystic bullshit has a real bad habit of stopping being bullshit on me at the most unlikely times."

"So you're saying that you want to fight her, and you want to fight her alone," Ilia said slowly. "And you don't want us to interrupt even if..."

"Yeah," the red-eyed woman said with a nod as her sister trailed off. "Even if. This fight will probably be to the death. And... if I do die... I don't want any of you to take it out on Cyanide."

"Oh that's  _ bullshit _ ," Phoenix snapped, throwing her hands up.

"No you  _ listen _ to me!" Kai almost growled as she came to her feet, some of the others jerking back from the unexpected vehemence. "This shit is  _ important _ to me! It's a choice I'm making for who I want to be! It's one more step away from me being nobody from nowhere!"

"Are you  _ still _ on that?!" Weiss growled.

"You think you just hop away from that after a few good things happen to you?" Kai returned her lover's gaze evenly. "Are you over all  _ your _ issues because we're happy together? ... Yeah," she muttered as Weiss's gaze dropped. "So I want all of you to listen to me. If I go through with this, it's a choice Cyanide and I are making together. This isn't a grudge match, it's not a thing of hate, it's..."

She paused, took a breath, made herself say the words without irony or hesitation. "It's honor, and it's meaning. There's no anger in it. There's... purity. So I don't want it tainted with anger or vengeance."

"... You said 'if'," Ruby noted after a moment. "So are you not sure you'll go through with it?"

"If all of you hate the idea, like you really just can't stand it, then I'll turn her down," Kai answered after a brief hesitation. "I've already made an obligation to all of you and I won't throw that away for just what I want."

"That's not fair," Blake murmured, her ears laying down a bit. "Laying that on us."

"It's probably not, and I'm sorry," Kai agreed with a bob of her head, running a hand over her hair. "But listen. This... is part of the journey I'm making as a person. Me making the steps towards becoming as much who Ico raised me to be as Niobe raised me to be. I... want this. But I don't want it more than I want to be with all of you. So if you tell me not to do it, I'll walk away."

The crowded little apartment fell silent for a moment. Phoenix rubbed the back of her neck with her golden hand, then sighed. "I think I get what it means to... feel like you have something you need to do before you'll feel whole. So... alright, I'm with you on this one, cuz, even if I don't entirely understand."

"I guess it would be sort of hypocritical of me to say that you're not allowed to go charging after something mystical like that, considering," Ruby added ruefully, scratching briefly at the corner of one of her eyes. "So yeah, I understand too."

"... Do you think you can win?" Blake asked after a moment.

"I really have no clue," Kai answered honestly, shrugging and folding her arms over her chest. "I've never seen her fight, so I don't know how good she is, or anything, it was just... a feeling. Really clear and focused."

"I know how strong feelings can be. And... I know it can be almost impossible to not go with them," the former White Fang member said slowly. "Which is why, are you  _ sure _ you know what you're doing?"

"No, but I'm doing it with a clear head and no romanticism. I'm not longing for this or thinking it's the greatest thing in the world, I just... know I should."

"... Alright, then I'm on board too," Blake agreed after a moment.

"I don't like it, but if you feel that strongly, Kai, I'm gonna support you," Ilia spoke up a moment later.

"Well I don't like it either and I'm definitely not on board," Weiss grumbled. "Make me understand, Kai. Make me understand why you think you have to do this."

Kai sat in silence for long moments, trying to put her thoughts together, hoping to explain it to herself as much as Weiss. Finally, she said, "When you made the decision to step away from the you that your father had planned... did you sit down, write down all the pros and cons, objectively weigh everything... or did you just realize it was what you needed to do?"

"That's not-" Weiss scowled, looking down. 'Fair', she wanted to say. Except what wasn't the same? That her life hadn't been on the line? It certainly had when she had herself smuggled to Anima, and had almost died in the attempt. She'd tried to walk away once and successfully done it later... and it had never been a calculated, risk-assessed thing, merely a drive she knew from the heart of her. "... Fine. I understand. I'll support you. But just so you know, if you die, I... I'll..."

"Sell all her stuff?" Phoenix prompted.

"YES."

Kai grinned a bit wanly and nodded, then looked towards the last member of her crew. "Well?"

"It doesn't sound as if it much matters what I think, I've been handily outvoted," Pyrrha replied rather stiffly.

"This isn't a majority vote, Lucky. You have as much right to say what you think as anyone, and I'm gonna listen." Kai hesitated only briefly before adding, "As important to me as this is... this feeling, this drive... it ain't more important to me than any of you. Every single one of you is more important to me than anything... if it'd drive you away, no way in hell am I gonna do it."

"That's not fair," the other redhead said in a hurt tone, turning away a bit and hugging herself lightly. "That's putting too much on me."

"... Sorry."

"Pyrrha, out of all of us why does this bother you so much?" Phoenix asked with a curious frown.

The tall woman was silent for awhile, before finally sighing. "... It seems as if... whatever you want to call it, these... these  _ things _ that happen to us... that they led you all to me, and me to you, and thus pulled me out of the Hell I was living in before then. And trusting Kai's feeling let me save two peoples' lives. But... this... going off to this... destined... fight..."

She raised her left hand a little bit, looking down at it as she flexed the carbon fiber fingers. "... Whether I believe in destiny or not... whether there is a plan for all of us to be embraced or avoided... I do know that attempting to follow such feelings does not always work out so happily. Racing towards a... fated conflict..."

"... You're not wrong," Kai agreed, shaking her head. "I'm not even trusting to fate or... whatever... to see me through this. I don't know whether I'll win or lose... I'm gonna hafta fight her to find out. And this isn't a fight to... protect anything, or save anything. In the end it's just a fight to... have a fight, in some ways."

She hesitated a bit before continuing. "Maybe that's kinda... what makes it important though. We all decided to put our lives on the line for everyone else in the world. Every one of us made that choice already. You followed through more than most. But... if we can't decide to put our lives on the line just for ourselves and what we want... because they're our lives to gamble... are they even our lives anymore?"

It was Ruby who broke the short silence that followed after. "We all sort of gave up our lives when we committed to stopping Salem, even if we didn't know at the time that's what we were doing. We gave up everything we knew to do that. These last five months... we've been working hard to get back to that, like we know we need to. At the same time, we've also been living for ourselves... completely removed from all that. From Remnant, from the evil threatening it..."

She took a deep breath, let it out, raised her gaze to the rest. "I think Kai's right. Especially now that we're so close to our goal. More than ever, we need to remember that our lives are our own... that it's  _ our _ choice when, where, and how we risk them. If she doesn't have the right to risk her life in this fight by her own choice... how can any of us say we're really choosing the fight against Salem, either?"

"... I suppose you are right," Pyrrha finally agreed, bobbing her head once slowly. "Whatever... whatever the plans for us are, it is still our choice whether we walk towards them or turn away. You have made your choice, Kai... I will support you in it."

"Alright. I'll call Cyanide and set it up then. I know she wants to meet on the bridge in Big Sakura Park... it'll probably be tonight."

"We're going with you." Before Kai could say anything, Weiss continued, "Look I understand that you feel like you can trust her because of this connection, but the rest of us don't have that deep feeling in our souls. We'll  _ just _ make sure she honors her side of this and doesn't show up with a bunch of people to jump you."

"... Alright, fair enough." Kai nodded, then tapped the contact on her comm's screen and put it to her ear. "... Hey, Cyanide."

" _ Kai. Are you leaving? _ "

"Yeah. Soon. So probably best we get this done soon."

" _ Tonight is fine for me. The place we agreed? _ "

"Yeah. Listen, my crew's going to tag along but they're not going to interfere. They... don't really understand. They're gonna make sure you don't jump me or whatever."

" _ That's fine. I'll be bringing some of mine too, for similar reasons. _ "

"Heh. What, your fellow Demons don't understand your mystical bullshit? Kinda sounded like a natural fit, with the 'wish it' stuff."

" _ The wishes are usually a little more... obvious and direct. This isn't something most of them have a lot of experience with. But they understand this is my wish now... they won't bother us, or your friends, as long as they don't try to interfere. _ "

"Same. ... Cyanide, one more thing," Kai said.

" _ What is it? _ "

"Just to be sure... you want to do this, right? Whatever this connection is between us, this feeling like we have to fight so one of us can be a Master... you're choosing it, not feeling like you have to do it?"

"... _ I suppose I could wonder at what point there's any real difference, _ " Cyanide's voice replied after a moment. " _ I feel like I need this to move ahead with my life. Like it's just stagnation if I don't. Put it like that, it's not that much of a choice. ... But yes, I'm choosing to do this. To move forward. _ "

"Alright." Kai hesitated, uncertain what else to say before finally settling on, "Good luck."

" _... Heh. You too. _ "

The line clicked, and Kai lowered her comm, looking at it for a moment, before blinking at the collection of flat looks and bemused grins directed at her.

"'Good luck'? Seriously?" Weiss muttered.

"... Well she said it back," Kai murmured, looking down and rubbing the back of her neck.

"So. What happens now?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well. Tonight we go to Big Sakura Park. I guess you guys and Cyanide's escorts will hang out at a distance while Cyanide and I..." Kai trailed off, then shrugged slightly. "If I lose, it defaults back to the old plan. Niobe takes you home. I've given her the timestamp she should use since my Guild comm recorded it. Like I said... I don't want any retribution against Cyanide. This is a decision she and I made... it isn't her fault."

* * *

"I guess really it was both of our faults.

"Looking back... what we were doing was cruel. Here we were, setting up this fight, our friends right nearby... and I didn't doubt that they were her friends... and asking them to be okay with just standing there as one of their own friends died, and then to do nothing about it.

"Had she had this same conversation with them? Or were they already so devoted to fulfilling each other's wishes that it just came naturally to them? Whatever amount of convincing it took, it didn't make me think it would hurt them less to lose her.

"What the fuck were we even doing?

"But we'd committed ourselves to it. I think we both understood at this point there was no turning back... that part of our souls that had resonated wouldn't allow us to just turn around and walk away now. This fight was going to happen... today, next week, ten years from now. Better it be now, when we could both control it.

"Big Sakura Park... there weren't many legitimate parks on Makarzia, and this one wasn't really different. It had been the real thing once, but it's hard to keep anything alive when it's exposed to Makarzian rain all the time. So bit by bit the natural grass had given way to astroturf, the bushes had been replaced by plastic sculptures that sort of looked like bushes, and the trees had been taken out altogether. Except for the titular big sakura.

"It had been some Neokuza prince's pride and joy, probably numerous generations of them, back when Makarzia hadn't been quite what it was now. They'd spent tons of money getting it the best fertilizer, the best care... it had grown way, way beyond the size those trees ever get to even back on the planet it had been imported from at great expense. It was this towering, massive thing that loomed above the little miniature river or big stream or whatever it was that wound through the park.

"And then of course when the rain turned poison it had fucking died.

"Give it this, it hadn't rotted. Apparently all that investment meant it did something closer to, I don't know, 'flash petrifying'... the thing's trunk was hard as stone. It still looked pretty tree-y, so as a bit of a face-saving gesture the Neokuza... probably the Holy Dragons by that point... had paid to have an absolute fuckton of little holo-generators attached all over its branches. Branches that now glowed with the just slightly translucent pink of millions of sakura blossoms year round, drifting down in little slightly pixelated patterns to disappear before ever hitting the ground.

"Beautiful if you didn't think about it. Vaguely insulting in a way you couldn't quite quantify if you did. Fake. Just slightly not as good as the rest of the universe had it. That fucking tree was just Makarzia all over.

"Beneath those hologram-shrouded branches was where we'd have our fight that night. On the bridge... there were a couple but if you said the bridge in Big Sakura Park, everyone knew which you meant. Back when the tree had been real it had been the most popular place in the megasector for lovers to gather. It had been replaced with larger, wider versions repeatedly trying to accommodate the traffic.

"It was still a semi-popular place for daytimers to take dates, but nowhere near as much now that there was that vague sense of falsity hanging over everything. Let's just say it wasn't where you brought someone to ask them to marry you, as I understand it. But it had become a popular place for gangbangers to turn up and fight each other after dark. Hey, it was a nice wide bridge with a dramatic setting and everyone knew where it was, it was convenient.

"Guess that was the life cycle on Makarzia. You start out big and beautiful and a thing of hope and joy, and gradually all that's left is the makeout sessions and fighting."

* * *

"Looks like there's less of them than there are of us," Phoenix commented dryly. "Though I recognize a certain someone."

"Yeah, and Red Tide's with them too," Kai commented as her crew made their way towards the small cluster of Street Demons standing not too far inside the park gates. It technically wasn't supposed to be open after dark, but she highly doubted that whatever sixhour parked on the corner that was supposed to enforce that had decided to stick around when he'd seen a bunch of Street Demon generals strolling down the sidewalk toward him. "That means they've probably got a couple of hundred mooks just waiting for the press of a button to come rushing in, so everyone behave."

"We are, we are!" Ruby huffed. Then she made a soft noise that somehow perfectly mingled fury, envy, despair, and lust. " _ No fair _ , I want one!"

It wasn't exactly hard to guess what she meant. One of the Street Demons... one Kai hadn't seen before... was holding a massive crystalslicer scythe. Kai could only imagine the sheer expense of a custom job like that, especially getting it in a rarer color like pink. The Street Demon's entire aesthetic was on the cutesy side, her clothes a punked-up variation on a maid's outfit with full-length skirt, her pink chrome horns starting at the sides of her head in a heart shape, lit LED lines running up the middle on the inside and the outside, more pink lines glowing over the maid outfit and the bits of armor attached to it here and there. Her mask had large heart-shaped vents, little puffs of pink smoke wafting out of them occasionally.

Standing next to her was the one Phoenix had so quickly recognized, Spontaneous Combustion, her helmet and suit apparently repaired. Maybe upgraded, since its lights were no longer simple red but flickering through fiery colors. Besides Red Tide, there was a petite one in a long black and yellow coat, a fairly large 'turtleshell' backpack made up of numerous black metal segments on her back, hands either covered with heavy power armor gauntlets or replaced with less than sleek prosthetics. Her bull-like cyberhorns had holes in the sides of them, apparently to allow her to pull her long blonde hair through them to make twintails. Admittedly the red eyes above her vape mask did make Kai flick her own towards Phoenix, wondering at the possibilities.

Cyanide had apparently been talking to Red Tide, but as the Silver Ring approached she broke off and stepped forward. "Kai."

"Cyanide." The redhead hesitated a little, but decided that they may as well do this thing polite. "My crew. You may or may not know 'em, so. My sister Ilia. My cousins, Ruby and Phoenix. My girl Weiss. My posses, Blake and Pyrrha."

Cyanide nodded. "Right, fair enough. Pretty sure you all know Red Tide and Spontaneous Combustion. That's Unyielding Field and Pointless Spite."

"Ohayooooo!" the pink Demon, Unyielding Field apparently, declared cheerfully while waving a gloved hand.

"S'up," Pointless Spite added.

"So it's 'Phoenix' now, huh?" Spontaneous Combustion added with a vocoder-enhanced snort. "You must've really gotten off on all the attention from our little runin."

"... Y'know I'd deny it but I'd be lying," Phoenix answered with a snort of her own, lips curling in a grin. She hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and offered her hand. "Probably stupid to say, but glad to see you back on your feet."

"... Yeah. Thanks." The Street Demon took the other woman's golden hand and gave it a brief shake.

* * *

"Over the months, we'd developed a weird relationship with the Street Demons.

"In some ways nothing had really changed. We just kept trying to kill each other. They kept acting like the closest thing to pure evil we really had on Makarzia.

"But understanding that they didn't hate us changed something, I guess? Understanding that, like Mal, they'd all turned to this out of hurt and rage and pain and loss... I dunno. It didn't change that we had to fight them, that we had to defeat them.

"But we also didn't have to hate them."

* * *

"Are you ready?" Cyanide asked.

"... Yeah. Gimme one more minute." Kai turned to Weiss, who looked away from her as she stepped close... and then melted against her front as the red-eyed woman enfolded her in her arms. "I love you," Kai whispered softly.

"I love you too," Weiss murmured back, raising her head and leaning up to kiss the other woman, letting it linger and not caring who was watching.

When she stepped back, the others stepped forward for hugs, the Street Demons watching in silence, offering neither mockery or encouragement. Finally Kai turned, nodded again to Cyanide, and the two started to make their way further into the park.

"... No special goodbyes among you guys?" Kai asked after a few moments of walking along the chipped concrete path, the red brick at the edges just almost crumbled into a memory.

Cyanide was quiet for long enough that Kai thought she was just going to ignore the question. But finally she said, "I have a hard time with that sort of thing. They understand."

Kai nodded slowly, and decided not to pry. It was strange to be so intimately connected to someone and yet not know where the line was with trying to connect to each other. They were about to try to kill each other, after all. Was getting to know each other going to make that any better?

... Was not knowing going to make it worse?

"Combi, I still don't like this."

"Look, me either, Spee, but it's her decision," Spontaneous Combustion grumbled, folding her arms over her chest with the soft whir of motorassist servos, eyeing the group that had drawn away to cluster around one of the benches, apparently mostly trying to support the little white-haired one. 

"You guys are too teeeeense!" Unyielding Field chirped. "Cy's gonna be fiiiiine!"

"Uni, c'mon, don't just blow it off," Pointless Spite grumbled. "The red one's killed  _ so many _ of the Calamitous. She was a terror even before she came back with those guys."

"The red one that was a terror then and the red one that's a terror now aren't the same person," Red Tide chimed in without turning around. "She may be walking around in the same body, she might seem like she's a cold blooded killer sometimes, but she's not the same. She's lost her hate."

"Red, do you think that will put Cy over the top?" Pointless Spite asked hopefully. "That she still has her hate at the world to drive her?"

Red Tide didn't answer for a long time. When she did her voice was slow. "It doesn't matter if she wins or loses. What matters is that this is her wish now. It is our job as her family to make sure it comes true, that she gets to fight this fight."

"What was her wish beforrrre?" Unyielding Field suddenly piped up, tone curious. "I don't think she ever saaaaid."

"... To kill until it felt natural and stopped hurting," Red Tide murmured softly.

"Here it is," Kai said, a bit unnecessarily.

The bridge and tree had both already been visible for a while... had the bridge been a road, it would have been at least three lanes wide. The waterway beneath was roughly as wide, slick and slightly oily... some treatment the Holy Dragons had sprung for at some point put something in the water to keep it from stinking terribly despite being mostly rainwater, but it couldn't quite keep it from looking like it was mixed liberally with cooking oil.

Both paused for a moment to look up at the massive petrified sakura tree, its gnarled, dark branches faintly visible through the thick profusion of holographic pink blossoms. Without really thinking Kai raised a hand as one of the petals drifted down towards her, the projection skittering a little as it encountered her palm, the petal reappearing below her hand and drifting down until it faded away like a ghost in the dawn.

"That place you want to go back to... it has real trees?" Cyanide asked suddenly.

"... Yeah." Kai nodded her head slowly. "It's a beautiful place. Dangerous in different ways than here... but it's got so much left that's been dead here forever."

The Street Demon nodded once. Then looked over. "... Is there anything you would like me to do? If I win?"

Kai considered that. It was probably bad to let herself think about losing the fight, but it was an offer made between them as part of this thing, and it felt wrong to just brush it off. "... I've been making some recordings. Just... trying to wrap my mind around stuff, sometimes. The things that have happened... including this. I didn't tell anyone else about them." She took out her comm and spent a moment using it, then ejected a chip and held it out. "Here's a copy."

"What should I do with them?" Cyanide asked as she took the chip, examined it for a moment, then pocketed it.

"I dunno... put 'em in a time capsule, shoot 'em into space, whatever. I don't want anyone specifically to hear 'em, just... as long as they're heard someday I guess." Kai shifted a little. "You?"

Again, Cyanide was quiet, glowing blue eyes lowering a little. But finally she said, "There's an ashpress site in this megasector... facility #199981. If you could leave some flowers there just every so often, I'd appreciate it."

Kai nodded slowly. Ashpresses were Makarzia's version of paupers' mass graves... bodies were cremated, the ashes pressed into concrete-like blocks, the blocks used to build columns until the facility was filled in, then they either built another story or just moved the machinery to a new facility. Basically the most you could hope for was that you were in the vague general vicinity of the mortal remains of whoever you were trying to visit... but that had to be enough for some people. "As often as I can manage."

"Thank you." Cyanide nodded once, then looked at the bridge. "... Let's take our places and get our heads right. I guess we'll know when to begin."

"Yeah."

"I kinda wanna steal it."

"Ruby, we're not supposed to antagonize them, and I'm pretty sure stealing one of them's weapons would count as antagonistic," Weiss said with a heavy sigh.

"I mean I said I  _ want _ to, not that I will! ... C'mon, Weiss, perk up, Kai's gonna be fine, I know she will," Ruby assured her partner, leaning down to pat her shoulder. 

"I certainly hope so. It will be a happy outcome," Pyrrha said evenly. "... For us," she added more quietly, looking across at the group of Street Demons. Though some of them seemed more casual than others, Red Tide's calm was obviously put on, her eyes wandering inward towards the park a bit too often for it to be sincere nonchalance, and the shortest one... "For someone called 'Pointless Spite' she certainly seems worried about her friend."

"Yeah, almost makes 'em seem human at this range, doesn't it?" Phoenix muttered.

"Because they are," Blake said with a sigh, taking out a rolled pillar, turning it a few times in her fingers, then tucking it away again.

"You know what I mean. Seeing them in the exact same boat we're in, it's easier to forget what they do. What they are."

"They certainly do not look like 'human calamities' at the moment, no," Pyrrha agreed quietly. "... Perhaps they too forget that sometimes."

"Look we don't have to hurt any of them, let's just... call it off, drag Cy away if we need to. She'd understand if we did it like that, right?"

"Enough," Red Tide snapped without changing her pose, making Pointless Spite jerk a bit in place. "We do  _ not _ go back on each other's wishes. That is against the very heart of what we are."

"I thought what we are is a  _ family _ ," Spite snapped back, her small shoulders shaking beneath her coat as she glowered at the taller woman. "I don't want to lose my family  _ again _ , that isn't why I joined the Street Demons!"

"... Lose her today to a blade, lose her a year from now to malaise," Red Tide finally said, shaking her head. "At least with today's fight, she's got a better than even chance of winning. She's stronger than the red one. Faster. Her equipment's better. And whatever happens her soul won't die."

"Ahhhh, do we still have thoooose?" Unyielding Field chirped, laying a gloved hand along the side of her mask and cocking her head to the side. "I thought we were all living calamities!"

"If we didn't have souls we wouldn't want to keep living despite being calamities." This time it was Spontaneous Combustion that spoke up. "A soul that visits only pain on others is a soul all the same."

"Mm. You certainly have a point there," Red Tide murmured, slipping a mask out of her pocket and eyeing the currently unlit scarlet-lined horns.

"Are you  _ kidding _ ?" hissed Spite.

Red Tide turned a cool look on the shorter woman. "A calamity to us is still a calamity. Besides," she murmured, turning her gaze back down to the unworn, unpowered mask. "Don't you have even the slightest curiosity what her wish is?"

They were standing a little over ten feet apart in the center of the bridge, the holographic sakura blossoms drifting down on a gentle breeze that didn't exist and would have stunk with the promise of rain even if it had. Their eyes hadn't left each other's. And now, as one, they moved, Cyan drawing crystal and shifting her further hip away, settling the bared blade even with her leg. Kai settled into a low stance, shoulders forward, hand coming forward to grip her crystalslicer but not yet drawing it.

A few breaths more.

_ Cabal Mind - The Knife's Edge _

And now.

They rushed together, and from the first drawing slash of Kai's red crystalslicer and the cutting rise of Cyanide's blue one, there was no hesitation, no checking of blows. Cyanide's strike hit, drove Kai's crystalslicer up and away, tried to snap down and slash open her chest, but the redhead hopped back, flicked and twirled the sword in her hand to shift its momentum and direction, came back in with a cut at the shoulder. Cyanide's forearm snapped up in an almost unnatural motion, wrist angling to block with such force that Kai had to twirl back and away, giving ground lest she be left too open.

'Shit! She's cybered up all to hell!' Kai cursed internally as Cyanide pressed her advantage, coming in striking hard, every impact of the higher-density custom crystalslicer against the simple off-the-shelf one sending a clang like expensive goblets toasting magnified by the inside of a giant bell ringing through the park. The redhead was forced on the full defensive, and even then she could feel the impacts ringing through her.

Every opening she found to strike back, Cyanide was too fast... if she had any time to react at all her implant-enhanced muscles sent her juking out of the way clean. Kai felt several cuts dance across her Aura in skittery scarlet light, several penetrating to leave quickly-healing gashes, but those were essentially near-misses... it was obvious that a good, solid strike with the highend crystalslicer would likely go through her Aura like it wasn't there, and no matter how much she healed, Kai would be done for once her Aura was depleted.

She'd miscalculated. Cyanide looked like a standard human, moved mostly like one. But she was probably rocking carbon fiber enforcement, or maybe even 3D printed muscle fibers. Kai was outmatched, plain and simple. In a matter of moments after the first exchange of blows, she was already being pushed to her limits.

Her steps started to falter as her thoughts filled with regrets... thoughts of her friends, her love... Weiss's face swam in front of her as Cyanide's latest strike hit home with enough strength to crack bones in Kai's palms as she barely managed to block. Her crew... her team... her friends... Niobe... Zee... Ico...

'I'm going to die.'

* * *

'I'm going to die.'

Kai sighed and leaned her head back against the bars of the improvised cage. It was a disappointment, but oh well... life had been full of those lately. Aer... ah, no, Niobe now, right?... was gone. The old man was probably going to sell Ico any day now. Life definitely wasn't going to get any better after that.

'Maybe it's better this way,' she thought musingly as she picked a bit of dirt off of her bare thigh and flicked it to join the rest of the dirt. 'There's over 200 soldiers in this camp. Hey, maybe one of them will turn out to be a surprisingly noble hero-type with a thing for redheads. ... Heh. Yeah right.'

She had all of one hope, and that was that Ico might come and save her. But that was stupid. Fighting 200 guys all by herself had to be way beyond even Ico's limits, and Ico had to know that.

'... Then why do I hear gunfire?' Kai thought a moment later, blinking and scrambling to her feet, gripping the bars as she stared towards the rest of the camp. 'No... Ico, no, tell me you didn't, no, c'mon! There's no way! Don't get yourself killed or captured for me god DAMMIT!'

The sounds of shooting and shouting went on and on though. There was even screaming. And a few explosions. And then, bit by bit, the sounds faded. The camp went quiet. And a solitary figure emerged from the trees to walk towards Kai's cage.

"Ico," Kai whispered. Her mentor had clearly been shot repeatedly, some of the wounds visible and gaping, still bleeding. Her hair was ragged, and burned in a few places, as were one of her arms and part of her face. The other woman's red eyes were as hard and expressionless as steel.

The soldier that had been guarding Kai's cage but who had hidden when all the ruckus started finally leaped from hiding, shouting something, bringing his pistol up... pointed at Kai. There was a motion in time with him pulling the trigger, and wood shattered and sprayed splinters well above the redheaded teen's scalp, before Ico whirled, the soldier's scream cutting off as his head flew through the air.

Only then did the steel in those eyes melt, Ico staggering a little, but quickly rallying herself, turning and slicing down, cutting through the chains used to secure the door. Kai shoved the door open and rushed to her mentor, catching her as she staggered again. "Ico! What the hell?! What the hell were you thinking, doing this for me?!" she demanded, tears not quite escaping her eyes. "Even you have limits goddammit!"

Ico managed to right herself, smiled as she reached out to rest her hand on Kai's cheek. "Don't be silly, Kai. There are no such things as 'limits'... there's just a point where you've decided it's alright for you to give up." Her thumb brushed back and forth, twice, beneath Kai's eye. "I certainly wasn't going to give up today."

* * *

Kai caught the next strike on her sword, braced her body against Cyanide's press, ducked her shoulder into it, locked into the press to hold her opponent for a few moments lest the Demon give her an opening.

She understood now. Both that she was letting herself give up when she had so much on the line...

... and that she couldn't let herself think about any of what was on the line.

Thinking was what was going to get her killed. Ico hadn't even looked at her back then, despite being there to rescue her... because Ico wasn't thinking about her. Just what needed to be done. Cutting a bullet. Stopping a guard. Just that moment.

So Kai pushed away thoughts of everything she loved. Everything that came before the fight. Everything that was after the fight. Everything but the fight. She locked out everything but one thought.

_ Adelita's Way - What It Takes _

'Faster.'

She ducked out of the lock and spun, forcing herself to move, her quick slice glancing across Cyanide's thigh and making her flinch, just the slightest. Enough space to breathe, drop, come in with a rising slash, back on the offensive, making Cyanide block. She ignored the pain in her hand of the clash, instead pushed forward.

The skill was already all there. Ico's training in the blade. Niobe's lessons in relentless assault. Mikon's advice in how to focus.

And one more mentor that Kai would never consciously admit to, but as she emptied herself of ego, of attachment, of anything but the need to fight this fight, she took what she'd been taught by the most experienced influence of all.

As Cyanide struck hard and forced her to spin away to bleed off momentum, Kai slammed a foot down hard enough to break the bones, muscles in her thigh and calf tearing as she shoved herself back around, scarlet light crackling around her leg as she hurled herself back at the Street Demon, kneecap shattering as it slammed into Cyanide's stomach and rocked her backwards, off-balance and barely able to force her augmented muscles into position in time to defend.

'Faster. Faster.' Her Aura crackled near-constantly as Kai forced her body to move beyond its physical limits, cybernetic muscles pushed to their limits and purely flesh-and-blood ones pushed beyond. In only the vaguest way Kai acknowledged that she was gradually depleting her Aura as she forced it to keep up with healing the results of her beyond-human maneuvers. 'Faster. Faster.'

There was no fight before this. There was no fight after this. There was only this fight. There was only winning it. Trusting in what she knew. Trusting in what she was. She flowed like lightning through the clouds, darting and striking, as pure and powerful as that force of nature. Everything came down to trusting in what she was.

And what came out was something that was entirely hers. 

Because for a single moment, she stopped thinking entirely. There was no 'Faster', nothing but the thought of the next move she needed to perform. She struck hard, knocked Cyanide's crystalslicer wide, leapt, and struck down like a thunderbolt.

A spray of red and pale greenish-white colored the night, Cyanide staggering back, a cut tracing a jagged line from shoulder to waist. The mingling of human and android blood hit the concrete, spattering around the blue-eyed woman's knees as she dropped to them, the crystalslicer falling to the bridge beside her.

"Oh," she murmured softly, before dropping to her side and then to her back, staring up at the night sky.

Reality bled back into Kai's mind as she looked down at Cyanide, drawing a shuddery breath as pain and exhaustion came with it. She blinked, staring at what she'd done without entirely comprehending it. 

She'd... won.

"God... that was... fantastic," Cyanide murmured, her voice sounding wet even through the electronic alteration. "That was... everything I hoped for... thank you."

"... Cyanide," Kai murmured.

"It's fine." Cyanide tried to raise a hand, wound up flopping it over palm-up. But Kai could see the smile in her eyes, if not on her lips. "We knew this was how this ended. And I'm... I'm good with it. Honestly... I'm okay... maybe... it won't hurt anymore."

* * *

"I looked down at her and part of me understood... yes, this was what it took.

"If I wanted to become a Master and not just a poor imitation, I would have to be cold enough to stand there and watch her die. To accept the consequences of my fight for mastery. To accept the honor and weight she had bestowed by giving her life in this fight that started my walk.

"A true Master of the Sword was nothing to sneeze at. A single one could change the course of a war, as wild as that sounds. Hell, Ico wasn't even a Master herself, but look at what she'd done when she put her mind to it.

"If I'd returned to Remnant on the path to being a Master, no Grimm would have ever come close to touching me again. It's entirely possible that through some as-yet-undiscovered technique, I could have even challenged Salem. Almost anything is possible for a Master. This war, the next one. The course of history would be mine to shape.

"And all it would take is letting someone who actually wanted to die, die."

* * *

The red crystalslicer dropped to the concrete, and a moment later Kai did as well, her hands pressing over the worst of the bleeding. "Hey! HEY!" she shouted. "The fight's over, get over here! She needs help!"

"What... the hell are you doing?" Cyanide hissed in pain, shuddering as Kai fished out her medkit with one hand and started fishing bits of it out.

"You may be cool with you dying, but I'm not."

"Dammit!" Finding strength, Cyanide's hand snapped up, gripping Kai's wrist, stopping her from applying a clamp. " _ No _ ! You need this!"

Kai leaned down, and looked directly into the other woman's eyes as the sound of feet pounding down the path grew louder.

"I'd rather have one more living friend than be a Master. Suck it up."

* * *

"So. I basically threw it all away.

"I mean, not everything. I'd gone further than I ever had before. I was going to be way better than I ever would have otherwise.

"But I'd never be a Master. I knew it the moment I made that decision that Cyanide's life was worth more.

"I'd been given the chance to shape the world and I'd turned my back on it. Because I didn't like what that would have taken shaping myself into... someone who was okay with trading lives for the bigger picture.

"I accepted this fight because it was taking back my own choice. Same thing for this. I wasn't going to trade my soul, any part of it, to walk the path of power.

"Call it childish. Call it naive. Guess in the end, I'd rather be a hero than a Master."

* * *

The Silver Ring watched the Demons loading Cyanide into the slender little airspeeder, the blade-wielding Street Demon unconscious now, no longer protesting or bemoaning the lost opportunity.

"I'm really proud of you," Weiss whispered, clinging to Kai's front tightly. "And if you ever put me through this nonsense again, I'm going to stab you."

"Heh. Pretty sure this particular nonsense is done with, Snowbird," Kai murmured, stroking her lover's hair.

She drew away slightly as Red Tide ambled over, turning towards the other red-eyed woman as she drew up in front of the group.

"I think you know better by now than to think we'd go back on our word. So you weren't afraid of retribution, and still you spared her. She says it cost you your chance to take the prize both of you were fighting for. So..." The elfin woman trailed off, and after a moment, shook her head. "I don't understand you."

"... Guess in the end it's pretty simple," Kai said slowly, grinning just a little. "I told someone once that I fight for those who are hurting... who are soulsick. If that doesn't describe all of you to a T, don't know what does." 

The grin faded as she added, "I'm never going to accept or tolerate the way that all of you operate... the way you take innocent lives and the hatred you show, no matter what some of you say. So I'll fight you. But I won't hate you. All I see are people who are hurting so bad they don't know what to do with it. I'd rather help you stop hurting than hurt you worse. ... But that's a choice only you guys can make."

Red Tide regarded her silently for long moments. Then fished something out of her pocket and tossed it over, Kai catching it half-reflexively. "Here. Little reminder... of paths not taken," she added before turning and strolling off, the skyspeeder already retreating into the night.

Kai turned the item over in her hand to look at it... an open-eyed mask, the upper part bearing short silver horns with unlit red glowlines on them, the lower part made to resemble a roaring lion's muzzle.

"The fuck?" Phoenix muttered, frowning at it. "You're no calamity."

"... I would've been to them," Kai murmured, raising her gaze to watch Red Tide's back as she departed.

And if they cared about each other's lives that much... maybe there was hope after all.


	19. Interlude 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai discusses Cyanide.

"She'd killed her entire family.

"They were just barely not homeless. There's food on Makarzia for you if you're that poor, but apparently there were quite a few of them, and even that was having trouble going around.

"So she took a chance on digging a big box of expired foodbars out of a trash chute. Must've seemed a pretty easy choice... starve to death or take a risk on something that's supposed to have a stupidly long shelf life anyway. Unfortunately the box was thrown out partly because that brand was notorious for going off even before the expiration date... something that distributors were warned about, but not the general public.

"The food poisoning that hit her family wasn't simple. It wasn't even fast. It hurt and it took awhile. Probably could've been handled with a few of those quality drips like Twitch had... but those were expensive.

"So. A whole family dead. Except the very daughter that had brought the poison home to them... because she'd wanted to leave more food for her siblings.

"Not hard to see why she picked the name Cyanide, is it?

"So what happens to you when you do something like that, when you carry that weight, but it's not in you to take your own life? When you just have to live with knowing you were that sort of... calamity?

"Like the other Street Demons, she'd been encouraged to lean into it.

"She taught herself to fight with a sword, because why not. Because the longer she spent focusing on learning to fight the less time she had to think about what she'd done. And the more people she cut down, the more she hoped that it would stop hurting for her to take a life.

"And it never did. And that was why it was okay with her to lay there and bleed out.

"Maybe it was selfish to make her live just because I didn't want to kill her. It's a weird thing to say, but that's the sort of thing you face in this life. That maybe it would have been kinder to end her.

"But that wasn't who I was going to be. That wasn't the life I wanted to live, and I'd turn away from it every chance I got. Because as long as she kept living... I had a hope that things would get better for her.

"Dragon forgive her the consequences of her good intentions. Dragon forgive her for her attempts to end the pain. And Dragon please, when the day does come, put her scale close to mine so that we can talk about how it got better."


End file.
